Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) articles from December 2005

Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) archives from December 2005

Too big to fail?(EDITOR'S NOTE)
December 1, 2005... A few days after the news broke about Refco Inc.--CEO Phillip Bennett had been hiding a $430 million debt on the balance sheet that once discovered caused Refco stock to drop precipitously and eventually put it into Chapter 11--someone I spoke...

Announcing FutureSource Workstation 2.0! The new source for energy market data.
December 1, 2005... How do you negotiate the fast-changing futures and energy markets successfully? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The answer: FutureSource Workstation With industry-leading data accuracy and reliability, FutureSource Workstation offers...

Clarification please?(Sound Off!)(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2005... Could contributing author David Sepiashvili's articles [most recent, "Getting a handle with adaptive limits," November 2005] provide more details so that readers can reproduce his results? I have studied technical analysis for more than 10...

Note about Refco.(Sound Off!)
December 1, 2005... The fallout from the Refco bankruptcy is not represented in our Top 50 Brokers list because the latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission figures are as of Sept. 30, 2005, prior to the announcement that Refco CEO Phillip Bennett was stepping...

It's a mess! Refco implodes.(Trendlines)
December 1, 2005... As the story of Refco's hidden nonrecoverable receivables unfolded, several industry insiders wondered why the approximately $2 billion of equity taken out of the firm prior to the IPO by past and present officers couldn't have been used to...

Everyone's doing it: portfolio margining.(Trendlines)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Risk based margining for security futures and security options should be a reality no later than winter 2006. Fred Hatfield, commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) says a recent hearing at the Senate Banking Committee...

Chartview: CBOT goes public.(Trendlines)
December 1, 2005... One week before the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was to go public, the Refco mess made headlines leading to speculation it would have a negative impact on the CBOT IPO or that the CBOT may delay the offering. However, the road to the...

Bankruptcy. Seg funds and you: how safe are seg funds anyway ...(Trendlines)
December 1, 2005... As the Refco implosion continues to play out, there is a lot of talk about segregated funds. Many investors believe "segregated" means absolutely isolated. "It doesn't," says Diane Mix, president of Horizon Cash Management. "It means...

It's not right: one unhappy customer.(Trendlines)
December 1, 2005... Bill Blake, an 84-year-old retired salesman, has been trading futures for nearly 50 years. He liked to trade Canadian dollars and other currencies in his Refco futures account. Attracted by "no fee" trading and more variety, Blake had...

And the winner is ... Man buys Refco futures.(Trendlines)
December 1, 2005... Man Financial Inc., a subsidiary of Man Group Plc., has successfully bid $323 million, $282 million in cash and $41 million of assumed liabilities, for Refco's regulated commodity futures businesses in the United States, London, Asia and...

LSE: closing on the jewels.(International News)
December 1, 2005... The long battle for control of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is entering its final act, with the U.K.'s Competition Commission finally issuing the conditions under which the crown jewel of the island's financial infrastructure can be sold to...

Gold in Dubai.(International News)
December 1, 2005... The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX), the first commodities exchange in the Middle East, began trading Nov. 22. Confirmed members of the exchange include the National Bank of Dubai and Swiss Gold. The exchange estimated there...

More MOUs.(International News)
December 1, 2005... The CBOT has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with DGCX to facilitate cooperation between the two exchanges in regards to spread margining for certain commodity contracts and to share information. The CBOT has also signed a MOU...

Philadelphia story.(Managed Money Review)(Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management)
December 1, 2005... When the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) obtained in June a court order freezing assets of commodity pool Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management (PAAM) and its president Paul Eustace, it didn't appear to be much more than a...

Bernanke named to head Fed.(Trading Places)
December 1, 2005... President Bush named Ben S. Bernanke to replace outgoing Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan. If confirmed, Bernanke will begin his term as chairman on Jan. 31, 2006. Bernanke was formerly a chairman of the President's Council of...

Gas up.(Hot Commodities)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Despite the presence of some bearish fundamentals, analysts peg $10 per mBtu as the low for natural gas. "If the warm weather persists through Thanksgiving, the [natural gas] market will have already made a low in the $10 to $11 area and should...

OJ juiced.(Hot Commodities)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Throughout the last several years, the orange crop has migrated south, out of freeze scares and into the teeth of hurricanes. The USDA estimates that Hurricane Wilma has destroyed 24 to 25 million boxes of Florida oranges. Production estimates...

Beefing up.(Hot Commodities)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... The February live cattle contract is trading at an all-time high. "What is unusual is that the balance sheet implies that you have plenty of cattle," says Daniel L. Bluntzer, director of research at Frontier Risk Management LLC, adding that...

A time in history.(Market Strategy)
December 1, 2005... We are at a time in our history when prognostications for the stock market and the economy may be more difficult than ever before. Debt, deficits, indictments, war, terrorism, changing of the Fed chairman, real estate bubble, hurricanes, oil...

Finding the hot markets of 2006: energies, metals and grains look to be most active in 2006. Rising inflation and interest rates may cool the stock market and deficits continue to pressure the dollar. But while several markets appear to be heading south, this does not rule out profit opportunities for the savvy trader.(MARKETS)
December 1, 2005... Probably not much to your surprise, the energy sector seems to receive the most fanfare when it comes to hot markets for 2006. Forecasts for crude to reach $67 per barrel by March are easy to find and some say by the beginning of 2006 crude oil...

Tech talk: all that glitters.(MARKETS)
December 1, 2005... After years of languishing under $400 per ounce, gold made an impressive run in the second half of 2004 taking out the $400 mark and not looking back. Gold, basis the February 2006 contract, spent a good portion of 2005 consolidating in the...

Forex prognostications for 2006.(Forex Trader)
December 1, 2005... As 2005 closes, the world is in an economic balancing act trying to sustain global growth and at the same time correct imbalances in capital flows. Global growth results in positive sentiment, but when it is based on unsustainable consumer...

An engulfing good time with candlesticks: one of the great things about trading is that simple still works. One of the simplest trading tools is Japanese candlesticks, which offer considerable ease of identification. Here we cover one of the most reliable patterns.(EQUITY TRADING TECHNIQUES)
December 1, 2005... Candlestick patterns were discovered through simple observation. As years of successful utilization of the signals progressed, they were extended to even examine the psychology behind signal formation. This provided a powerful tool for...

Gold, oil and dollar repercussions: the actions of gold, oil, interest rates and the dollar pose some interesting prospects for all these markets, particularly in light of how similar situations have played out in the past.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
December 1, 2005... As commodities continue to overwhelm financial assets, more attention is being paid to the relationship between prices of fuel and metals, specifically oil and gold. Crude oil is rallying on generous supply and demand forces while gold is...

A sideways and directional proposition: there is a better way for many of us to trade, and it is satisfyingly flexible. The hedged Asian straddle is a strategy that can profit regardless of which way a market moves, or it can be adjusted for directional bias.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
December 1, 2005... Survival of the fittest is a concept that definitely applies to markets. The theory of evolution states that it is not the strongest, but the most adaptive beings that ultimately survive. The fittest could be categorized as the more adaptive....

Following the median line to profit: Andrews' PitchFork offers an elegant approach to price trend detection on any level of analysis, from five-minute to weekly.
December 1, 2005... Andrews' PitchFork is a technical analysis tool designed to channel the chaos of the markets into an organized flow of prices. It was first taught in the 1960s, by Alan Andrews, under the concept of what he termed the "median line" (ML). ...

The truth about intermarket analysis: intermarket analysis works, but only if you keep it simple. While it appears more popular than ever, here's an update on how strategies published eight years ago still work today.
December 1, 2005... Many of us were introduced to intermarket analysis--the study of related markets for clues to their future price direction--by John Murphy's 1991 book Intermarket Technical Analysis (John Wiley & Sons). The book demonstrated the relationships...

First rays of the new rising sun: while the futures industry is abuzz over potential access to Asian exchanges, most retail traders have yet to make the connection. That may be changing.(FUTURES 101)
December 1, 2005... Global futures markets are clearly experiencing dramatic growth, driven by cheap computing power and network connectivity and the expansion of Asian markets and their accessibility to electronic traders is clearly on the rise. Streams of...

Front ends and automated trading.(Online Trading)
December 1, 2005... Automated trading, also known as black box trading, is a fast growing trend and Independent Software Vendors (ISV) and Application Service Providers (ASP) are playing key roles. ISVs and ASPs can offer varying services from the basic...

Wealth-Lab Pro.(Software Review)
December 1, 2005... Wealth-Lab Pro Fidelity Active Trader Services 1-800-TRADER1 www.fidelity.com;www.wealth-lab.com OVERALL RATING: Excellent LEVEL: Beginner to advanced. PRICE: The software costs $650 without the data or trading...

2006: hedge funds get regulated; Hedge fund managers in the United States, Europe and Asia are bracing for a year of increased regulation. If London's approach is any indication of how they will proceed, that might not be such a bad thing.(MANAGED MONEY)
December 1, 2005... As 2005 draws to a close. hedge funds are hotter than ever--and so are the regulatory seats upon which they sit. The United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority (FSA) and Hong Kong's Monetary Authority are just two of several regional...

Top 50 brokers.
December 1, 2005... One year-ago the futures industry was basking in the glow of record volume and strong profits thanks to increased efficiencies and competition. The common clearing link between the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange...

Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street.
December 1, 2005... Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street Hill and Wang 400 pages, Hardcover, $27.00 William Poundstone, author of Fortune's Formula, contends that there are...

Hedge Fund Masters: How Top Hedge Fund Traders Set Goals, Overcome Barriers and Achieve Peak Performance.
December 1, 2005... Hedge Fund Masters: How Top Hedge Fund Traders Set Goals, Overcome Barriers and Achieve Peak Performance By Ari Kiev John Wiley and Sons 272 pages, Hardcover, $50.00 There are pretenders in the field of trading psychology, but...

Contract dates.(Dateline)(Calendar)
December 1, 2005... 1 FND: Nybot Nov Ethanol F, LND: Nybot Nov Ethanol F, LTD: BM & F Alcohol OF, iBrX 50 F, CME Nov Milk F,OF. [TABLE OMITTED] 2 FND: BM & F Alcohol F, Arabica coffee F, LTD: CME Live cattle OF, Butter OF, Weather F. 7 LTD:...

Events coming up.(Calendar)
December 1, 2005... Call the numbers listed for more information. For other seminars, see the classifieds on pages 80-85. Futures and Options Seminar. DEC. 5-6. (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). CFTC, New York. www.theifm.org. (202) 223-1528. International Traders...

Schroeder: putting theory to the test.(Karsten Schroeder)
December 1, 2005... Shamil Chandaria puts his money where his mouth is. The former global head of structured finance at Deutsche Bank has been telling audiences across Europe to adjust their portfolios for reduced volatility over the coming two years, and by...