Marketable Securities

3 Months Ended

Apr. 30, 2011

Marketable Securities [Abstract]

Marketable Securities

4.       Marketable Securities

We have marketable securities that are invested in money market and mutual funds that are liquid and actively traded on the exchanges. These securities are assets that are held in a rabbi trust established for our deferred compensation plans that became effective on January 1, 2009. For further information on the deferred compensation plans, see Note 6 to the consolidated financial statements in this Form 10-Q.

The money market investments in the trust approximate fair value due to the short period of time to maturity. The fair values of the equity securities are based on the quoted market prices as traded on the exchanges.We have matched the current portion of the deferred compensation liability with the current asset and the noncurrent deferred compensation liability with the noncurrent asset; the current portion has been included in “Other current assets” in the consolidated balance sheets. The composition of these securities as of April 30, 2011and October 31, 2010is as follows.

	April 30, 2011				October 31, 2010
			Fair				Fair
In thousands	Cost		Value		Cost		Value
Current trading securities:
Money markets	$	-	$	-	$	-	$	-
Mutual funds		6		7		4		5
Total current trading securities		6		7		4		5
Noncurrent trading securities:
Money markets		218		218		254		254
Mutual funds		1,105		1,353		618		743
Total noncurrent trading securities		1,323		1,571		872		997
Total trading securities	$	1,329	$	1,578	$	876	$	1,002