Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) articles from February 2007

Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) archives from February 2007

Fueling the fires.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
February 1, 2007... There's been some debate in the corridors of Futures magazine as to where the price of crude oil will be headed in 2007. Some people have said it should continue down, as there seems to be ample supply, especially in the United States. And with...

Softs market hardball: Manhattan melodrama.(Trendlines)(IntercontinentalExchange Inc. buys New York Board of Trade )
February 1, 2007... When the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) got the blessing from New York Board of Trade members to purchase the softs exchange, those markets, often the least liquid of U. S. markets, suddenly heated up. Upon the announcement, the New York...

Unwinds and winded: Refco FX clients left with little in account.(Trendlines)
February 1, 2007... Forex Capital Markets (FXCM) and 300 former Refco FX Associates LLC customers have lost a constructive trust case they brought against the company in an effort to reclaim $10.6 million dollars tied up in the bankruptcy since October 2005. ...

Finally: SEC expands portfolio margining.(Trendlines)
February 1, 2007... After years of fighting for it, and six years after a form of it was mandated by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, equity traders will be eligible for portfolio margining. In late December, at the request of the New York Stock Exchange...

It's a family affair: does CME/CBOT deal dissolve rights?(Trendlines)
February 1, 2007... For CBOE and its leader William J. Brodsky the issue is simple. Once there are no longer shares of CBOT, the former shareholders won't own CBOE exercise right privileges (ERP). The ERP can be activated by CBOT members who hold their CBOT...

French connection: Fimat-Calyon to merge.(Calyon Financial)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Societe Generale, the parent bank of futures commission merchant (FCM) Fimat, and Calyon acknowledged plans to merge the brokerage activities of Fimat and Calyon Financial. Reports of a tie up of the two French FCMs first surfaced last...

C. Harry Falk, president and CEO of Nybot dies.(Trendlines)
February 1, 2007... The staff of Futures magazine extends condolences to the family and friends of C. Harry Falk, who died on Jan. 3 at the age of 66. Falk became president and CEO of Nybot on July 11, 2003, after having been named interim president and CEO of...

Chartview: another record year.(Trendlines)
February 1, 2007... The CME posted its seventh consecutive record year featuring double-digit growth with volume surpassing 1.3 billion contracts. Average daily volume grew to 5.3 million contracts, an increase of 28% over 2005. Electronic volume grew at an even...

Look to the east: Indian exchanges in play in 2007?(Trendlines)
February 1, 2007... With Europe's exchange takeover wars entering the endgame, attention is shifting to India, home to two of the world's most fascinating exchange projects: the truly innovative Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), which broke all the rules of IT when...

CCorp. sells minority stake.(International News)
February 1, 2007... The Clearing Corporation (CCorp.) has sold a minority ownership stake to GFI Group Inc. and ICAP plc, and with their help developed joint clearing services for OTC derivatives products, including credit and interest rate derivatives. "With...

Exchanges come to Vietnam.(International News)
February 1, 2007... The Vietnamese government has recently issued a decree establishing commodity exchanges and regulating commodity trading. The decree would create favorable conditions for future development of the commodities market and establishment of...

Ledvora now RedSky's CFO.(RedSky Financial appoints Robert Ledvora)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Robert Ledvora has joined RedSky Financial as chief financial officer. Most recently, he was director of finance and accounting for Mizuho Securities USA and served at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Previously he was executive...

Chicago Board Options Exchange.(Trading Places)
February 1, 2007... Bradley G. Griffith was elected vice chairman of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and will serve a one-year term beginning in January, 2007. Griffith has been a CBOE member since 1980.

Horizon Cash Management LLC.(Trading Places)
February 1, 2007... Amy Walkington is was named portfolio manager at Horizon Cash Management LLC. Most recently, she was a senior fixed income trader at ABN AMRO Asset Management.

Hedge Fund Research Inc.(Trading Places)
February 1, 2007... Kenneth J. Heinz is now president of Hedge Fund Research Inc. Most recently, he was a manager of the investment management division.

firstRain.(Trading Places)
February 1, 2007... Todd Rudley joins financial services research company firstRain as vice president of sales. Previously he worked for Mellon Financial, Eagle Investment Systems and Advent Software.

RTS Realtime Systems Group Frankfurt/London.(Trading Places)
February 1, 2007... Mark Thornberry is now managing director of RTS Realtime Systems Group Frankfurt/London.

Eurex Zurich AG, Eurex Frankfurt AG and Eurex Clearing AG.(Trading Places)
February 1, 2007... Three new members have been elected to the supervisory boards of Eurex Zurich AG, Eurex Frankfurt AG and Eurex Clearing AG: Christian Gell, managing director of Credit Suisse, Andreas Haberli, head of equities Switzerland at UBS Investment...

SEC at it again.(Managed Money Review)(Securities and Exchange Commission propose new regulations for hedge funds)
February 1, 2007... The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the end of the year proposed two new rules for hedge funds and pooled investment vehicles, one of which could dramatically affect the number of people qualified to invest in hedge funds. The...

Correction.(Correction notice)
February 1, 2007... The correct November 2006 monthly estimated returns and estimated year-to-date returns as of Nov. 30 for the following Marathon funds are: Marathon Currency & Financials Portfolio, +4.47 and +4.70; Marathon Plus Portfolio, +4.05 and +1.78; and...

O.J.: here's how it happened.(Hot Commodities)
February 1, 2007... In the last 15 months, frozen concentrated orange juice futures (FCOJ) have been on a tear, trading above $2 per pound, up from 85cents in fall 2005. But since early December, O.J. has dropped almost 13cents and still looks overbought to some...

Red metal meltdown.(Hot Commodities)
February 1, 2007... Because of its importance to housing, automotive and other manufacturing, copper prices have been a bellwether for the global economy, and now declining prices are reflecting a chill. "We had a huge run up to $4 [per lb.]," says Thomas J....

Is equity run over?(Hot Commodities)(E-mini S & P)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... After heading up for 11 of the last 12 months, the E-mini S & P has been trending lower since mid December. "We've seen quite a sell off from 1440," says Larry Levin, president of Secrets of Traders and a PitGuru.com contributor, adding that we...

2007: a slow year for Fed watchers?(not much change in federal fund rates)
February 1, 2007... This could prove to be a pretty boring year for monetary policy for those who like a lot of central bank rate action, but that might not be such a bad thing. The Fed has shown no eagerness to change policy in either direction. After...

Crude oil: it is all in the numbers; When crude hit record levels in 2006 many analysts complained that the supply/demand fundamentals did not justify the price. Will crude prices continue to defy supply fundamentals in the coming year and what impact will weather and geopolitical events have on prices in 2007?(MARKETS)(Statistical data)
February 1, 2007... $78.40 is a fetching price tag for one barrel of the light, sweet crude oil that trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex). Not only is that price a milestone because it is the all-time (front month) intra-day high hit July 14, 2006,...

Tech talk: how low will WTI go?(MARKETS)(world trade index)
February 1, 2007... Another unseasonably warm winter coupled with weakening technicals is pushing Nymex Spot WTI crude oil back to the lower end of the trading channel that has been in place since October 2006 (see "Oil gets serious"). The market began to...

Measuring currency strength.(Forex Trader)
February 1, 2007... How strong is a currency? This question is fundamental to the forex trader. Because trading is the act of buying or selling one currency against another, traders usually think about the currency pair and not the currency itself. When a trader...

Beyond Elliott wave; It takes at least two things to succeed with Elliot wave analysis: practice--to recognize the patterns as they occur and not just in hindsight, and flexibility--to know how to react if and when something doesn't unfold by the book.(EQUITY TRADING TECHNIQUES)
February 1, 2007... R.N. Elliott introduced the concept of counting waves in 1938 after a stomach condition kept him bedridden most of the previous decade. An accountant and railroad executive who was forced into early retirement, Elliott studied the historical...

Today's top 10 trading systems: markets change with time--that is what makes them markets after all. But prices also experience significant shifts in their relationships with macroeconomic forces, not to mention other markets. It's these massive shifts that make it critical to constantly re-evaluate the systems that have performed the best through time.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)(Cover story)
February 1, 2007... Since the last report on the top 10 trading systems in the February 2006 issue, systematic traders have suffered through one of the most difficult periods in many years. These non-system-friendly markets have been around for nearly three years...

Swept up in the tide: the best profit opportunities occur when trade signals are confirmed by multiple indicators across multiple time frames. Synergies like that are great but rare.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
February 1, 2007... When the fundamentals, or economics, line up with the technicals or chart patterns, in a particular market the situation possesses synergy that can give the trader more confidence than when trading on just one alone. Instilled with greater...

Exits are where the money is: exits are a critical part of a profitable trading system. But, many traders overlook exits in favor of finding profitable entries. We look at how exits affect system performance even when entry criteria is kept constant.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
February 1, 2007... The exit strategy for your trading method--not the entry signal--determines whether you make money. Finding the right exit strategy is where traders should spend most of their design effort, rather than searching for the elusive "perfect" entry...

What system traders are afraid to ask: although you are always tempted to dive right into the meat of system development, there are some hard issues you need to face first. In this installment of our series on building modern trading systems, we will address some of these difficult and sometimes controversial topics.(TECHNOLOGY & TRADING)
February 1, 2007... When you set out to build a trading system, there are some fundamental questions that you must ask before you get to the step of entry rule development. If these fundamental questions aren't answered clearly and definitively, then you are sure...

Trade Navigator Platinum V. 3.01.(Software Review)(Product/service evaluation)
February 1, 2007... Trade Navigator Platinum V. 3.01. Genesis Financial Technologies 425 Windchime Place Colorado Springs, CO 80919 E-mail: hmartinez@genesisft.com (800) 808-3882 OVERALL RATING: Good LEVEL: Beginner SYSTEM...

The great leap forward: despite the inevitable march towards electronic trading, traders in certain niche markets have been able to blithely live in the past. But now that agricultural markets are trading electronically during the day, there is a new urgency for late adopters to get up to speed.(FUTURES 101)
February 1, 2007... If you have managed to avoid the electronic trading revolution because your markets of choice are in the old line commodities, it's time to put down the phone and pick up a mouse. Grains, energies, metals and even meats are now all trading...

European CTAs: out of the muddle?(MANAGED MONEY)
February 1, 2007... Ask a semi-savvy European investor if he's got money in managed futures, and he'll likely look at you as if your third head were screwed on sideways. Ask him if he's in hedge funds, and he'll give you a Cheshire grin. Little does he know...

Commodities create the right mix: most investors want to improve the overall return/risk profile of their portfolios. They want lower volatility, smoother returns and to decrease the possibility of large losses. Modern portfolio theory holds that risk can be reduced significantly by diversification among noncorrelated assets.(MANAGED MONEY)
February 1, 2007... Investors would prefer not to sacrifice returns to lessen risk through asset diversification and so they look for uncorrelated assets with a positive return. That is why many have come to invest in tangible commodities. Tangible commodities...

Tops & bottoms of 2006.(TRADE TRENDS)
February 1, 2007... It was another watershed year for the futures industry in 2006. The much anticipated consolidation of exchanges moved from a series of rumors to several real deals, outlying markets finally made the leap to electronic trading and the industry...

Are you ready to trade mechanically?(My Position)(Column)
February 1, 2007... Although there is a huge public awareness of mechanical trading that barely existed 30 years ago, there are still widespread misconceptions about the methodology. One of the biggest disconnects lies in what mechanical hopefuls imagine can be...

Futures & Options for Dummies.
February 1, 2007... Futures & Options for Dummies By Joe Duarte, MD. Wiley Publishing Inc., April 2006 365 pages, $21.99 Like other books in the Dummies series, this one is very easy to read and the illustrations are entertaining. Dr. Duarte has...

Understanding Asset Allocation.(Book review)
February 1, 2007... Understanding Asset Allocation By Victor Canto Prentice Hall, 2006 336 pages, $34.99 How does a portfolio manager achieve superior returns while methodically reducing risk? Consider the theoretical precepts and empirical...

Contract dates.(Dateline)(Calendar)
February 1, 2007... 1 LTD: BM & F Alcohol OF, iBrX 50 F, CME Jan Milk F,OF, Jan Butter F, Euronext-Liffe Mar White sugar OF. [TABLE OMITTED] 2 LTD: CME Jan Frozen Pork Bellies OF, Jan Weather F, Live cattle OF, Pork bellies, frozen OF, Nybot Mar Cocoa OF....

Events coming up.(Calendar)
February 1, 2007... Call the numbers listed for more information. For other seminars, see the classifieds on pages 85-89. The World Money Show. FEB. 7-10. Gaylord Palms Resort, Orlando, Fla. www.worldmoneyshow.com. (800) 970-4355. MFA Network 2007. FEB....

Mark Coe: carrying profits.(Trader Profile)
February 1, 2007... Mark Coe started out his trading career as a successful discretionary trader for proprietary trading firm Blackwood Securities in 1999. As his trading evolved he focused on foreign exchange and system development. After leaving Blackwood, in...