Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) articles from July 2004

Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) archives from July 2004

Caveat emptor.(Editor's Note)
July 1, 2004... A few months ago I made a bet with a Texas energy trader friend that we would never see $25 per barrel crude (WTI) again, ever. He said he'd take that bet, but added, wisely, we should put a deadline on it, March 2005. I was telling this story...

Less technology risk.(Sound Off!)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... As a sporadic reader of Futures, I have to compliment, where appropriate, the "Managing your technology risk" article [in the June 2004 issue]. Having just been through many of these decisions in upgrading my seven-year-old system, I wish John...

E-mini envy.(agricultural spreads)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... I enjoyed the article about ag spreads in the June issue ["Making the most of Ag spreads"]. As a smaller trader, I find that spreads certainly do provide the most "bang for the buck." With smaller margin requirements and less volatility, they...

Leading the pairs.(Sound Off!)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... I am getting my feet wet in forex. I will be day-trading and swing trading the pairs. I found the many articles in your April edition of Futures on forex very helpful. Do you know of any specific indexes that work as leading indicators for the...

David and Goliath? CME ramping up forex support, targets OTC business.(Trendlines)(Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.)(Over the counter)(Foreign Exchange)
July 1, 2004... The modern era of futures markets can be traced to 1972 when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) created the International Monetary Market (IMM) to begin trading foreign currency futures benchmarked against the U.S. dollar. Those first...

Brokerage buyout: new owners, same course for Refco.(Trendlines)(Refco Group Ltd.)
July 1, 2004... After months of speculation about a possible sale, Refco Group Ltd. and private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners in June signed an agreement that will allow THL to acquire a majority ownership stake in Refco. The transaction, which is subject...

Renminbi futures on Globex? China, CME lay groundwork to float yuan.(Trendlines)(Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.)(China Foreign Exchange Trade System)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Memorandum of understanding (MOU) signings are becoming pretty routine events these days. But with U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow in attendance the early June MOU signing between the CME and the China Foreign Exchange Trading System and...

The 'other' option markets: Amex and PCX staying competitive.(Trendlines)(PCX Holdings Inc.)(American Stock Exchange L.L.C.)
July 1, 2004... As traders demand newer, better and faster executions, exchanges have to comply to stay on top and in competition. The relative upstarts, the International Securities Exchange and the Boston Options Exchange, and even the industry bellwether...

Hunted becomes the hunter: after shaking off suitor, Nymex to bid on ICE?(Trendlines)(New York Mercantile Exchange)(Intercontinental Exchange)
July 1, 2004... The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), a recent acquisition target itself, reportedly has looked to acquire the fellow energy mart InterContinental Exchange (ICE). ICE offers an OTC energy trading platform and is the parent of the...

Building a European benchmark.(International News)(MTS bond exchange)(Reuters Group PLC)(ICAP PLC)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The race is on to develop the pan-European benchmark product for European government bonds--with the MTS bond exchange, interdealer broker ICAP, and Reuters all scrambling to offer swaps trading. Reuters is the first to market--with its trading...

Who spilled the beans?(International News)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Eurex US announced a fee waiver on its Web site in early June, only to remove the message and declare it an error. Of course, the fact that the message was written at all shows the exchange is up to something...

Trade first ... then ask questions.(International News)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Creditors looking to protect themselves with Credit Default Swaps (CDS) had better put on positions before ratings come into question. That's the advice of Fitch Ratings, which evaluated the liquidity of CDSs in 12 companies that had fallen...

Sword of Domocles?(International News)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The European Union has moved closer to valuing derivatives positions in fair value, in accordance with standards set by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). With talks scheduled to continue to the end of June, billions of euros...

Harris joins Promontory Financial Group.(Trading Places)(Douglas Harris)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Investment and advisory firm Promontory Financial Group has hired Douglas Harris as managing director in the New York office. "One of Promontory's main goals is to help large financial institutions with internal control, risk management,...

Hedge fund indexes on the rise.(Managed Money Review)(Illustration)
July 1, 2004... In the late 1990s with mutual funds underperforming benchmarks, investors turned to index funds. As hedge funds continue to grow, investable indexes designed to replicate the hedge fund universe and strategies within that universe are...

Freeze dried?(Hot Commodities)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The seasonal freeze scare in coffee came a little early this year as September coffee rallied $0.17 in the last week of May with temperatures dropping and the heart of the South American winter still over a month away. Peter DeSario, softs...

Gas supplies loosening.(Hot Commodities)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... With gas prices above $2 at the pump, oil production from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) has been spotlighted. While it is popular to blame Opec, the cartel has been consistently pumping out 2 million barrels above its...

Got milk? Get some!(Hot Commodities)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Volatility has been the rule for milk futures, which have been rallying of late after dropping $4 from record highs earlier this spring. The scare that sent people scurrying to their supermarkets to load up on Ben and Jerry's was due to a...

New economy, new indicators.(Markets)
July 1, 2004... A changing market requires a changing focus. As we saw in 2003, the economic indicators that we relied on for the past decade are no longer the most accurate predictors of economic strength or the direction of the U.S. dollar. In the past, the...

Taking the measure of 'measured'.(federal funds rates)
July 1, 2004... Lingering doubts have been removed and, barring some major negative shock, by the time you read this, Federal Reserve policymakers will have raised the federal funds rate by 25 basis points after holding the key overnight rate at a 46-year low...

Forex and the Google factor.(Forex Trader)
July 1, 2004... While the 24/7 nature of the forex markets generates unprecedented trading opportunities and volume, it also imposes unprecedented challenges in analysis. A new trader can be overwhelmed quickly in trying to make sense of a day's events....

Expanding the usefulness of RSI: the relative strength index has become one of the most popular and widely cited technical indicators. However, using it in time frames for which it wasn't designed requires customization of the inputs. With a few modifications, we can create an adaptive RSI that is more flexible.(Equity Trading Techniques)(relative strength index)
July 1, 2004... Developed by J. W. Wilder in 1978, the relative strength index (RSI) has become one of the prevalent technical tools. This useful momentum oscillator has gained general recognition and found its way to all financial markets. When Wilder...

Commodities: barometer or broken clock? Daily market commentaries from a wide range of sources often draw on the perceived ties between fluctuations in stock and commodity prices, but is this logical leap a sound one?(Trading Techniques)
July 1, 2004... This being the time of year when truths are held to be self-evident, let's move in the opposite direction and challenge some of the more common ones linking the prices of industrial commodities with macroeconomic activity. The first straw...

China's heavy hand moving markets: measures are underway to cool the red hot Chinese economy. Are there still opportunities for traders? Short option plays may be your answer.(Trading Techniques)
July 1, 2004... One look at the raging bull markets that took place in a variety of commodities over the last 18 months may be a clue that something special is happening behind the scenes. While a variety of factors can combine to drive a bull market, the...

Digital options: not so exotic; Digital options typically are placed into the class of financial instruments referred to as "exotic." However, digital options are simple, and can find a place in the average retail trader's trading toolbox.(Trading Techniques)
July 1, 2004... Exotic options are the tools of multi-million dollar OTC traders with big bank and other financial institutions backing them. It is rare for an individual retail trader to use these instruments, and for good reason. They are complex, expensive...

Using the ADX to set up straddle trades: option straddles are known as trades that can make money when nothing else can, but timing them can be tricky. Here is a proven strategy for determining when you should put on straddle positions.(Trading Techniques)
July 1, 2004... Markets move sideways about 80% of the time and trend for about 20% of the time. For most traders, sideways market conditions are most frustrating to trade because the profits are small and whipsaws are frequent. Some traders, though, are able...

Neural nets can fine tune trading systems: when neural networks fail, it often is because of user error, not an inherent flaw in the tools themselves. When properly used, neural networks can predict some market moves with outstanding accuracy. Using the Dow and the EUR/USD--we will demonstrate how.(Technology & Trading)
July 1, 2004... The efficient use of an artificial neural network (ANN) in predicting the evolution of the financial markets is a highly controversial subject. Actually, predicting the behavior of financial markets in general is recognized to be a difficult...

Strategy Runner.(Software Review)
July 1, 2004... Strategy Runner Ltd. 156 N. Jefferson, Suite 301 Chicago, Ill. 60661 Phone: (312) 798-4425 E-mail: info@strategyrunner.com OVERALL RATING: Good LEVEL: Intermediate COST: A per round turn fee is added to the...

Triple witching: no longer as scary; Triple witching is not the hectic event it once was, deterring traders from their normal trading plans. Still the concurrent expiration of stock index futures, stock index options and individual equity options (and, now, single stock futures) is still something to watch.(Futures 101)
July 1, 2004... Triple witching, the simultaneous expiration of three types of investment contracts, stock index futures, stock index options and individual stock options, is not as volatile as an event as it sounds like--well, at least not as bad as it once...

Growing without growing pains: with the top trading advisors managing increasingly more money, is the 'commodity' in danger of being taken out of commodity trading advisor?(Managed Money)
July 1, 2004... Many commodity trading advisors are finding it increasingly more difficult to trade diversified portfolios, allocating to all sectors in the futures universe. This is, after all, a good problem to have; it is the result of taking in more money....

Chinese roulette: trading the Pacific Rim; As China's government navigates the treacherous territory between boom and bubble, the nations around it--and, indeed, around the world--are bracing for the consequences. Traders who think they have a handle on the outcome will soon have scores of new ways to get in on the action.(Trade Trends)
July 1, 2004... In the 10 years since Ken Chong started running Lind-Waldock's Asia Trade Center in Chicago, the products traded by his U.S.-based clients have remained fairly constant. "Americans looking to trade Asia generally think Hong Kong and Singapore,"...

Contract dates.(Dateline)(Public Notice)
July 1, 2004... 1 FND: BM & F Crystal sugar F, Alcohol F, Conillon coffee F, Nybot FCOJ F, Sugar #11 F, Nymex Palladium F, Platinum F. LND: Nybot Sugar #11 F. LTD: BM & F Crystal sugar OF, Alcohol OF, Euronext-Liffe White sugar OF. 2 FND: BM & F Arabica...

Events coming up.(Calendar)
July 1, 2004... Call the numbers listed for more information. For other seminars, see the classifieds on pages 76-81. FIA/FOA 11th International Derivatives Conference. JUNE 29-30. Grange City Hotel, London. www.futuresindustry.org. (202) 466-5460. ...

MCM taking the next step.(Trader Profile)(Meyer Capital Management)
July 1, 2004... James Meyer, president and sole principal of Meyer Capital Management, has come a long way from his college days in the 1980s working as a runner at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, but he still applies those lessons he learned on the floor in...