New Technology Could Make Toronto Hub for Global Electricity Exchange; Success of "Stress Test" Proves Viability of Internet Futures Platform

BetterMarkets Ltd. today announced the success of the first real time simulation of its Internet-based trading platform which will pave the way for a global, borderless exchange, says company founder David Rudd. "We expect this platform to revolutionize the way forwards and other financial instruments are traded," says Rudd. "It will make geography irrelevant and allow trading on a 24 hour a day basis."

The trading platform, VoltZ, was created by Toronto-based BetterMarkets Ltd. to handle the heavy trading anticipated when Ontario's electricity market opens this fall. BetterMarkets hosted municipal electric utilities, generators, wholesalers and industry consultants for a real-time, online "stress test" to demonstrate the capability of VoltZ in handling the demands of high volume trading. Participants bought and sold simulated blocks of power to test the trading system. Thousands of province-wide trades were occurring each hour, all taking less than 1/8 of a second, proving the viability of the trading platform. With VoltZ, when a bid or offer is accepted, the trader instantly receives confirmation of the trade including the name of the counter party, the price and the size of the trade.

"Based on the results of this successful simulation, I can confidently declare BetterMarkets Ltd. and VoltZ ready, willing and able to work with key industry players," says Rudd. "The technology will initially be used for trading in Ontario's electricity market, and is easily transferable to all other business sectors. It's easily adaptable to any financial and commodity markets and gives Canadian buyers and sellers global access," Rudd said.

A key feature of the BetterMarkets platform is the market transparency made possible by the technology. All transactions are in the public realm and in real time so that anyone connected to the Internet with a desk-top computer will be able to see blocks of power being bought and sold. "It levels the playing field by creating a process where buyers and sellers all have the same market information at the same time," says Rudd.

"I was quite impressed with the transparency the technology makes possible, said Dr. Al Kupcis, Chairman of Intergran Technologies Inc., who participated in the simulation. "We could watch the bids and offers changing on the screen in real time. It works extremely well, and it works very quickly," he said.

"Transparency is key to an efficient market and this is the first truly transparent trading system we've seen in North America," said Dr. Luis Seco, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Toronto and Director of The Ontario Centre for Energy Finance. "This will help us greatly in the development of risk management products for Ontario's electricity industry."

BetterMarkets Ltd. is a privately owned Toronto based online commodity-trading centre, originally founded as MyBroker.com. BetterMarkets Ltd. combines the strength of some of Canada's leading risk management experts through an affiliation with The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, with an Internet trading model that allows energy users and producers to trade commodities in a real time, high speed, secure environment.

CONTACT: BetterMarkets Ltd. | Scott McIndless, (416) 361-6377