Just before the Christmas rush began, John Bryson, Edison International chief executive officer, president, and chair, exercised stock options to bring in a little holiday jingle. Bryson bought 120,000 shares of Edison International on November 23 at $14.56 per share and sold them later that day in a series of transactions as the company?s share price hovered around $32. In the course of the day, Bryson reaped $3.8 million from his $1.7 million investment, netting a little less than $2.1 million. That doesn?t include brokerage fees and the half hour it took to report the deal to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Edison chair, whom <i>Forbes</i> magazine has dubbed one of the most powerful corporate executives in America, received $6.6 million in compensation in 2003. Edison returned to financial health last year, declaring the first dividend since the energy crisis, which sparked shareholders to hail Bryson as the ?dividend man? at the company?s annual meeting earlier this year (<i>Circuit</i>, May 21, 2004). Edison earnings have continued to climb, up from $1.67 per share in the third quarter of 2003 to $2.49 a share in the third quarter this year.