11 OCTOBER 1997, Page 32

Break a leg

THE Stock Exchange must tell itself that a disastrous rehearsal means a good first night. Then it can look forward to its new style of trading when the curtain goes up on Monday week. The rehearsal was all start- ing and stopping, as an unruly cast of char- acters kept improvising lines to test the market's reactions. Some of them were instructive. 'Gordon Brown resigns': lead- ing shares steady to firm. 'Britain to join European monetary union in first wave': pull the other leg, old boy, it's got bells on. I do hope the market got that one right.