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Screen traders offered link to open outcry

LONDON: Financial market traders missing the noise of open outcry since it gave way to screen trading were thrown a lifeline on Sunday with a PC programme that turns financial data into sound.

MarketSound, set up by two former traders, said in a statement its technology enabled traders to "hear" the market from their desks.

Its programme can "absorb, prioritise and verbalise data faster than the human eye and mind", it said. Financial market information was turned into "an intelligent real-time commentary".

Many traders, used to the pits where operators in colourful jackets once dealt by voice and hand signals, have bemoaned the rapid transition to screen dealing.

MarketSound said its product was focused on stock index, currency and interest rate futures.-Reuters