Dear Fellow Shareholders,
亲爱的股东们：
2007 marked the 30th anniversary of our founding and our first year as a public company. Throughout our history, we have maintained a single-minded focus on building a global marketplace connecting the world’s exchanges through automation, speed and efficiency.
2007 年是我们公司成立 30 周年，同时也是我们首次以上市公司身份运营的一年。自创立以来，我们始终专注于依靠自动化、速度与效率打造一个连接全球各大交易所的全球化市场。
We have uniquely positioned ourselves at the crossroads of four broad historic trends:
我们独特地站在四大宏观历史趋势的交汇点上：
First, Globalization, that is, the coming together of the world’s economies via the integration of the world’s markets. Indeed, we have been integrating the world’s markets on our platform for many years and we are further advanced in our mission than anyone else in our industry. We provide liquidity and, in most cases, give our customers access to 70 exchanges in 25 countries in 14 currencies in stocks, futures, options and forex.
第一，全球化，即通过全球市场的整合让世界经济更加紧密地联系在一起。事实上，多年来我们一直在平台上整合全球市场，在这一使命的推进上，我们领先于行业内其他任何公司。我们为客户提供流动性，并通常让他们能够以 14 种货币在 25 个国家、70 家交易所交易股票、期货、期权和外汇。
Second, Adoption of Technology. We have been the leader in applying computing and communications technology to the market making and brokerage businesses and we continuously adapt our processes to new technologies as they become available. Automation has two important advantages: First, software is less expensive and less prone to error than humans. And second, automation makes us one of the lowest cost producers in our industry. It explains the 70 percent pre-tax profit margin we achieved in the first quarter of 2008.
第二，技术的采用。我们在将计算与通信技术应用于做市和经纪业务方面一直处于领先地位，并持续随着新技术的出现改进流程。自动化带来两大优势：其一，软件成本更低且错误率低于人工；其二，自动化使我们成为业内成本最低的生产者之一。这也解释了我们在 2008 年第一季度实现的 70% 税前利润率。
The primary advantage of our automated market making engine is providing quicker feedback of liquidity imbalances on markets around the world, which allows us to transfer liquidity from where it is available to where it is in demand. This is a mathematically complex process, a task for which computers and specialized software are ideally suited.
我们的自动化做市引擎的主要优势，是能更快反馈全球市场的流动性失衡，从而将流动性从充裕之处转移到需求旺盛之地。这一过程在数学上极其复杂，而计算机及专用软件正适合执行此类任务。
Our proprietary software, which we have been building for the past three decades, continuously communicates with liquidity centers, exchanges, clearing houses and our customers around the world. In essence, we function as a toll taker of sorts, by providing value in the form of liquidity and brokerage services to our institutional and professional investor customers.
在过去三十年里我们持续构建的专有软件，不断与全球的流动性中心、交易所、清算所和客户进行通信。本质上，我们扮演了“收费站”角色，通过向机构及专业投资者客户提供流动性与经纪服务来创造价值。
The third trend we are witnessing is a Spreading Equity Culture around the world. A growing investor class, the popularity of derivatives, and the increasing acceptance of electronic trading and investing are all part of this phenomenon and are important trends that will continue to drive our business.
第三，我们见证了全球股权文化的扩散。投资者群体的壮大、衍生品的流行以及电子交易与投资的日益普及，皆属这一现象的重要组成部分，并将持续推动我们的业务发展。
And finally, Optimizing the Allocation of Resources in this global network of electronic platforms is a long-term trend of our time. Electronic exchanges, clearing houses, brokers and customers make up the network. We have built ourselves deeper into this network than anyone else in our industry. Our early and continuous investment in technology has given us a significant advantage over our competitors.
最后，在这一全球电子平台网络中优化资源配置，是当代的一项长期趋势。电子交易所、清算所、经纪商与客户共同构成这一网络。我们在其中的深入程度超过业内任何竞争对手。早期且持续的技术投入，使我们拥有显著的竞争优势。
Our goal is to become an ever greater part of this network by providing liquidity and state-of-the-art technology to a growing audience of institutional and professional traders and investors at the lowest cost worldwide. We expect to continue this integration effort by bringing new countries, new electronic exchanges and new products to our platform for years to come.
我们的目标，是凭借向日益壮大的机构及专业交易员、投资者群体，以全球最低成本提供流动性和最先进技术，成为这一网络中更为重要的一环。未来数年，我们将继续推进整合，引入新的国家、新的电子交易所及新的产品至我们的平台。