Sterling Financial Systems, Inc.
225 West Washington Street, Suite 1014
Chicago, Illinois 60606
(312) 346-9600

Announcement: V-Fill Liquidity Solution from Essex-Radez Now Available in Sterling

January 5, 2006

ANNOUNCEMENT – TO ALL STERLING CLIENTS

Sterling is pleased to announce a new software feature in the Sterling Trader® system that will allow traders to participate in the V-Fill Liquidity Solution offered by Essex Radez. V-Fill is the off-exchange liquidity solution that provides immediate execution on all listed and OTC securities orders (including baskets). V-Fill is a faster alternative to the NYSE and other liquidity pools. The V-Fill feature is now available to users of both Sterling Trader® Pro and Sterling Trader® Manager platforms through its order entry windows. To participate in the Essex Radez V-Fill Liquidity Solution, Sterling users will need to indicate in the order entry windows (Level I or Level II) the following selections:

1. ‘VFILL’ in the Destination field.
2. ‘IOC’ in the ‘Tif’ (Time-in-Force) field.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

An appropriate release level of the Sterling OMS software (FIX Handler 4.1.17 or later) is needed to support this feature. You must check with your Sterling system support representative before using this feature.

For further information about the Essex Radez V-Fill Liquidity Solution, please refer to the following link:

http://www.essexradez.com/v-fill_solution.htm

Sterling Trader® is a registered Trademark of Sterling Technologies, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

Sterling Financial Systems, Inc.
225 W Washington St., Ste. 1014
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 346-9600
info@sterlingfinancialsystems.com