In the struggle against sexual discrimination on Wall Street, Pamela K. Martens is a latter-day Rosa Parks - a woman who, metaphorically speaking, refused to sit in the back of the bus.

Even a casual reader of the financial pages knows that microcaps are a perennial headache for regulators and, above all, for investors because they have been prone to abuse by stock manipulators.

For the Amex, which has been casting around for a role for itself, microcaps fill a crucial void - a 'niche' that Amex officials feel has been neglected.

Gary Weiss Quotes