Archive for the ‘Markets’ Category
Monday, November 28th, 2011
Tags: MF Global, sipc
Posted in General, MF Global, Markets | 1 Comment »
Monday, September 5th, 2011
The Futures Industry Association held a panel on high frequency trading on Thursday in Chicago titled, “Perspectives on High Frequency Trading and its Overall Impact on the Market.”
The three practitioners on the panel did their best to dispel some of the myths surrounding high frequency trading helped by moderator John Lothian and had a sympathetic audience of members of the Chicago trading community but for those who view this practice as potentially disruptive, I am not sure they gained any believers.
(more…)
Tags: high frequency trading
Posted in Markets | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
A recent Bloomberg headline gave me a chuckle. It was, “Analyst Estimates 10 Times Higher Than GDP in S&P 500 Rout.”
The story went on to say, “ Wall Street firms pushed up estimates for Standard & Poor’s 500 Index earnings for a 10th straight quarter, forecasting a 17% gain in 2011… That’s 9.9 times more than economists say gross domestic product will grow.”
Those economists are party poopers. (more…)
Posted in Markets | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 5th, 2011
As some of the first wire stories on Thursday’s market plunge began to come across my desk I was struck by one in particular. The headline said, “Geithner stays and the market tanks”.
I have to admit I found that amusing. You see, I had just posted a chart on our web site indicating how some significant technical support areas had been breached on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. I had been having a conversation with one of our contributors about this and he had indicated earlier in the week that the market could be facing a turning point.
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Tags: Dow Jones Industrial Average, Treasury
Posted in Debt ceiling, Markets, economy | 1 Comment »
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
As our political leaders were patting themselves on the back for averting a crisis — albeit with both sides of the debate frustrated they didn’t get everything they wanted, even those who got almost everything — a strange thing was happening in the markets. Equity indexes continued to tank.
Perhaps some analysts and pundits breathed a big sigh of relief when equities rebounded after a huger sell-off on Wednesday to close higher. No relief was in sight today as the Dow dropped more than 500 points and the S&P 500 dropped 55 pushing both indexes into the red for 2011. (more…)
Tags: Congress, Dow Jones Industrial Average, economy
Posted in Debt ceiling, Markets, economy | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
When I started at Futures more than a decade ago I realized that while the futures industry was a big deal in Chicago and for us who worked in it (I already had been working in the industry for more than a decade at the time), I also learned that the wider business media community viewed it as a sleepy backwater and knew little about it.
In the last 10 years, however, things have changed as futures’ volume exploded, exchanges became public companies and big players in mergers and acquisitions, and assets allocated to futures based investment strategies have grown by a factor of 7X.
(more…)
Tags: CME Group
Posted in Floor, General, Markets | No Comments »
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Earlier this month we asked, “Is government manipulation of markets the answer?” in reaction to the release of a study by the United Nations Counsel of Trading and Development (UNCTAD).
Earlier this week the answer from the Obama Administration appears to be “yes” as they decided to open up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) along with the International Energy Agency (IEA)to make-up for lost Libyan production. The decision to release 30 million barrels of oil from the U.S. SPR over the next 30 days seems to be a stretch of the emergency role of the SPR and could be an omen of a slippery slope towards more government intervention. (more…)
Tags: manipulation, markets, oil, regulation, strategic petroleum reserve
Posted in Markets, Regulatory/actions | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
It was nearly two years ago when ELX Futures L.P. proudly announced that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had approved their exchange of futures for futures (EFF) rule.
It was a considerable victory for the upstart exchange because it would make it easier for end users to transfer their open interest to its clearinghouse from the CME Group clearinghouse or vice versa. (more…)
Tags: CFTC, CME Group, EFFs, ELX Futures, futures exchanges
Posted in Markets, Regulatory/actions | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
BarclayHedge released its May flash report of commodity trading advisor (CTA) performance this week, which indicated May was a rough month for managers. The report includes managed futures trading programs managing at least $50 million. It was no surprise that May was a tough month for traders as the sharp reversal in the U.S. dollar led many commodity markets to change course abruptly.
(more…)
Tags: Managed Futures, speculators
Posted in Managed Futures, Markets | No Comments »
It’s time to wipe that smug smile off our face, the “our” meaning the futures industry. The bankruptcy of MF Global revealed a breakdown of an industry that has thrived knowing that customer margin was “safe” because of segregated fund protections. The sacrosanct institution of protecting margin at the exchange clearinghouse level while enforcing a strict segregation at the clearing firm has been tested throughout the years: Refco, Stotler, Lehman, et al. Sometimes it wasn’t as it should be: Volume Investors, Sentinel. But typically the funds were moved over with accounts and positions so clients would not have to worry about where their money was in addition to market risk. (more…)