The global market for commodities is constantly changing, as volatile weather patterns and geopolitical situations alter local, national and global economies.

As the commodity and capital markets have become more global, India and China have emerged as two large consumers of commodities, which has increased the volatility of the commodity markets. At the same time, professional traders and hedge funds are increasingly drawn to the ensuing volatility and opportunities for trading profit, enhancing the volatility of these markets even further. The higher prices and volatility of commodities caused by the convergence of these events have increased the need for risk management by companies that supply or consume commodities or end-products.

Although commodity risk management has been made more accessible and more cost-effective by the increasing sophistication of trading platforms and the continued proliferation of exchange-traded and over-the-counter, or OTC, products, companies seeking to manage risk must overcome the increasing complexity of today’s markets in order to execute a successful commodity risk management program.

The total international notional value outstanding of exchange-traded and OTC derivative contracts has expanded rapidly in recent years, evidencing the large growth potential of the commodity risk management industry.

The notional value outstanding of exchange-traded contracts has grown at a CAGR of 22.5% over the past seven years according to the Bank for International Settlements, while the OTC market has grown at a CAGR of 19.8% over the same time period.

The Commodity and Risk Management segment is the foundation of the Company. Within this segment, the Company serves customers through a force of approximately 100 risk management consultants. Among more sophisticated customers, the Company provides less in the way of consulting services and focus more on providing a breadth of products and competitive pricing, while among its customers with less experience in the derivative markets, the Company provides a broad range of consulting services that are demonstrated most clearly in its IRMP.

The IRMP is a fee-based commodity risk management consulting service that is based upon a review of the Company’s customers’ commodity inputs and outputs in their products and services, with exposures identified and quantified.

The Company seeks to provide economical clearing and execution of exchange-traded futures and options for the institutional and professional trader market segments through the Stone division. Through its platform, the Company accepts customer orders and direct those orders to the appropriate exchange for execution. Clearing involves the matching of the customers’ trades with the exchange, the collection and management of margin deposits to support the transactions, and the accounting and reporting of the transactions to the customers.

The Company services its customers though a Wholesale Division and a Professional Trading Division.

Wholesale division customers generally consist of non-clearing futures commission merchants, or FCMs, introducing brokers and clearing FCMs for which the Company provides back-office services such as trade processing and accounting.

The professional trading customers consist of retail-oriented introducing brokers, professional traders and floor traders. In this division, the Company targets high-volume users of the futures and options markets.

Revenues, net of cost of commodities sold, increased $37.7 million, or 41.2%, from $91.5 million in the nine months ended May 31, 2005, to $129.2 million in the nine months ended May 31, 2006.

Service, consulting and brokerage fees increased $11.4 million, or 85.7%, from $13.2 million in the nine months ended May 31, 2005, to $24.6 million in the nine months ended May 31, 2006.

Interest income increased $10.0 million, or 189.9%, from $5.3 million in the nine months ended May 31, 2005, to $15.3 million in the nine months ended May 31, 2006.

Depreciation and amortization increased $67,000, or 5.8%, from $1.1 million in the nine months ended May 31, 2005, to $1.2 million in the nine months ended May 31, 2006.