11.   For two years, the two exchanges have been competing to win or retain important corporate clients, which offer prestige as well as hefty listing and trading fees.

12.   Gaffes and misunderstandings about how the two exchanges would combine have plagued the merger plan since it was announced less than five months ago.

13.   Grasso said the three exchanges will resume trading simultaneously.

14.   He said before the crackdown, some investors wrongly believed that shares on the two exchanges could only rise.

15.   In announcing their alliance, the two exchanges said they planned to create a company that would eventually establish a single electronic trading system for major stocks across Europe.

16.   In the months that followed, most of the other exchanges announced their intentions to grudgingly join up with the Anglo-German plan.

17.   Instead, investors trade closed-end fund shares in the open market on the various exchanges.

18.   IPE chairman Richard Reinert said executives of Nymex, the larger of the two exchanges, invited him to discuss joining forces and they met today.

19.   Like the other exchanges, the Lower East Side directs addicts to counseling and rehabilitation if they so desire.

20.   Listing requirements are similar for the two exchanges.