Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) articles from June 2006

Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) archives from June 2006

Butterflies and condors.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
June 1, 2006... The world of options trading is filled with vivid descriptions of positions and risk. Butterflies, condors, delta, gamma, beta.... it seems to highlight the richness of these tools and their flexibility in which traders can use them for profit...

Measuring success.(Sound Off!)
June 1, 2006... While I know it is not comprehensive, giving a list of top CTA performance each month without taking into account volatility of the returns does a disservice to potential investors. I am sure the equity curves of many of the funds showing up on...

New York's wake up call.(Sound Off!)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2006... I very much enjoyed your article on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex). I traded crude oil in the trading pit until I got fed up with the greasy pit fills. Then Chicago introduced electronic mini contracts and I restarted my data feed and...

If you can't beat em ... CME goes OTC forex.(Trendlines)
June 1, 2006... The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Reuters plan to bring institutional traders a new choice in global forex trading through a new electronic trading platform, FXMarketSpace. Set to launch in the first quarter of 2007, the 50/50 joint...

PAAM fallout: Man faces RICO charges.(Trendlines)
June 1, 2006... The battle between Man Financial Inc. and the receiver for Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management (PAAM) and affiliated funds escalated in May as receiver C. Clark Hodgson filed a civil action against Man and several of its employees for...

CFTC wins? Debt indexes' new look.(Trendlines)
June 1, 2006... Insiders say the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the CFTC will beat their June 30 deadline to come up with new definition of broad based debt security indexes, allowing futures on debt security indexes to trade under the sole...

I-C-A-P: how you spell behemoth.(Trendlines)
June 1, 2006... Michael Spencer has been talking about the death of telephone-based cash bond trading for a long time, and in April the company he founded, ICAP Plc, put another nail in the method's coffin with the takeover of electronic trading system EBS. He...

Carbon crash: ICE platform survives.(European Climate Exchange)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The 18-month old European Climate Exchange (ECX) passed its first major test in late April and early May when futures on carbon emission credits plunged roughly 60% in three days, after traders learned that European Union countries had largely...

Chartview: top 10 systems.(Trendlines)(Statistical table)(Company rankings)
June 1, 2006... Here are the top 10 trading systems for the 12-month period ending March 31 based on simulated trading testing by Futures Truth. The results are based on an initial investment of three times the margin required with no reinvestment of profits....

CBOT takes leap: August 1, a cold day in ...(Trendlines)
June 1, 2006... One of the few remaining obstacles to a total electronic trading world has fallen as the CBOT has committed to launch side-by-side electronic trading of agricultural futures. Starting Aug. 1, corn, wheat, soybean, soybean oil, soybean meal,...

Soybean partners.(International News)
June 1, 2006... China's Dalian Commodity Exchange will partner with Argentina's Rosario Futures Exchange to develop new derivative products including South American soybeans. The exchanges signed an initial agreement in April to share information and work...

Another SSF venue.(single stock futures)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The launch of Bursa Malaysia Derivatives' first group of single stock futures (SSF) saw a positive start with 533 contracts, valued at $8.55 million Ringgits ($2.37 million), traded on the first day on April 28. Of the 10 SSFs introduced,...

U.S./Canadian lumber spat solved.(International News)
June 1, 2006... The United States and Canada have ended a 20-year dispute about softwoods. The seven-year agreement stipulates the United States will return $4 billion of the $5 billion it collected in illegal duties; Canadian exports will be limited to about...

Nasdaq and LSE get serious.(International News)
June 1, 2006... The consolidation dance among international exchanges continues to play out though rumors of secret meetings, but all we know for sure is that Nasdaq is acquiring the London Stock Exchange bit by bit. At press time, Nasdaq upped its stake...

How to pick a survivor.(Managed Money Review)
June 1, 2006... Results from a research paper written by Fabrice Rouah, a Phd candidate at McGill University in Montreal, indicates that attrition rates and survivorship bias in hedge funds is less significant once you separate the funds that have liquidated...

Schaeffer elected Nymex chairman.(Trading Places)
June 1, 2006... Richard Schaeffer has been elected chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex). Schaeffer, who has been a Nymex board member for 16 years, 12 as treasurer, was head of global energy futures for ABN AMRO. He says his election brings...

RedSky Financial.(Trading Places)
June 1, 2006... Robert G. Fitzsimmons has been named chief executive officer at RedSky Financial, a broker-dealer and FCM. Fitzsimmons served as CEO of NQLX from 2003 to 2004, was an executive director at the Nasdaq Stock Market and a managing director at...

SWX Swiss Exchange.(Trading Places)
June 1, 2006... Peter Gomez was named chairman of the supervisory board of SWX Swiss Exchange, which jointly owns Eurex with Deutsche Borse. Gomez also has been appointed member of the supervisory board of Eurex Frankfurt AG and Eurex Clearing AG.

Penson Worldwide.(Trading Places)
June 1, 2006... Kevin McAleer was named vice president and chief financial officer at Penson Worldwide. McAleer has 23 years experience as the chief financial officer for public and private companies.

brokersXpress.(Trading Places)
June 1, 2006... Barry Metzger was named CEO of brokersXpress, a subsidiary of optionsXpress.

optionsXpress.(Trading Places)
June 1, 2006... Patrick Schuler joined optionsXpress as chief technology officer, responsible for technology initiatives. Most recently, Schuler worked at Goldman Sachs.

Euro on the move.(Hot Commodities)
June 1, 2006... Since the second week of April, euro currencies have been on a tear, racing from 121.00 to more than 129.00. "There's a lot of pressure on the U.S. dollar," says Kathy Lien, chief currency strategist at FXCM, who cites reserve diversification,...

Undervalued gold?(Hot Commodities)
June 1, 2006... August gold closed at $728.60 per ounce in mid May, leaving many traders wondering how high gold could go. "The way the market has gone parabolic, there will be a pullback. We haven't had any major corrections to buy into," says Rob Fuhrman,...

Gaseous situation.(Hot Commodities)
June 1, 2006... Last January was the warmest on record, leading to an over-supply of natural gas, but the hurricane-battered natural gas infrastructure is still vulnerable and hurricane season is just around the corner, leading to what Powerline Petroleum...

Not your normal grain market.(MARKETS)
June 1, 2006... Weather forecasts may be the simplest of factors in this year's grain market, considering today's grain traders must contend with ethanol demand driving corn, soybeans being steered by biodiesel fuels, a twist in the wheat market, fund buying...

Tech Talk: will next oil rally be soybean oil?(MARKETS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... As most automobile and homeowners are aware by now, the cost of energy is becoming a strain on the average consumer. Following the post-Katrina price pause, new historical crude oil highs occurring in April have brought this realization back...

Riding the metals' bull market.(Market Strategy)
June 1, 2006... There are several bullish factors coming into play at the same time that should continue fueling the bull market in precious metals. Greater demand for the physical metals by expanding economies, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) on silver, record...

Era of extreme forex trading.(Forex Trader)
June 1, 2006... These are times of extremes. We have seen multi-decade highs in gold and crude oil. The future may bring unprecedented and continuing supply pressures on the resources that fuel global growth. With Asian economies reaching 7% plus rates of GDP...

The options dilemma: exchanges offer options on individual stocks, options on stock index futures, options on ETFs, options on futures on individual stocks and options on cash indexes. For the end-user, more alternatives are always better, but how do you know what to trade?(EQUITY TRADING TECHNIQUES)
June 1, 2006... There's a whole lot for options traders to chose from these days, particularly in the arena of equity-linked products. When you're looking for exposure in the market, where you turn can have a significant effect on your ultimate bottom line....

Freeze season can be option-writing season: option selling is a high-probability trade if you time your move right. For the coffee market, the hot time to position your short option trades is often the coldest time of the year.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
June 1, 2006... As the concept of selling options continues to grow more popular with retail investors, volatility has become the new buzzword for traders in search of high premiums. Indeed, selling (or writing) options has its benefits. There's no need to...

Bio-fuels: the changing face of commodities; There's a new energy source out there. It's known as "bio-fuel," and it could impact everything from sugar to soybean oil to corn this summer.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
June 1, 2006... If you are involved in commodities brokerage at any level you would have noticed the recent interest in bio-fuels. Indeed, an entire bio-fuel strategy has emerged. For example, the traders on the front lines of this new area have cash ethanol...

TradingSolutions V 3.1.(Software Review)
June 1, 2006... TradingSolutions V 3.1 NeuroDimension Inc. 3701 NW 40th Terrace Suite 1 Gainsville, FL 32606 (800) 634-3327; (352) 377-5144 E-mail: info@tradingsolutions.com OVERALL RATING: Good LEVEL: Advanced. PRICE: The...

Cover your assets.(FUTURES 101)
June 1, 2006... When Refco Inc. and 23 unregulated subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy in October, tens of thousands of trading accounts were frozen. Since then account holders have had to jockey for position with other "creditors" in bankruptcy court to get...

Are option writers due for a fall? Picking up nickels in front of a steamroller is one of the most commonly used analogies of what options writers do, and while recent years have been a particularly good environment for option writers, decreasing volatility means they must get closer to the steamroller to pick-up that nickel.(MANAGED MONEY)
June 1, 2006... Option writing has always been a professional's game and every so often a spike in volatility could even wipe out a so called genius trader. Now not only are there dozens of smaller commodity trading advisors (CTA) using this strategy but more...

Warrior Trading: Inside the Mind of an Elite Currency Trader.(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Warrior Trading: Inside the Mind of an Elite Currency Trader By Clifford Bennett John Wiley & Sons Inc. 172 pages, $45 Warrior Trading doesn't break much new ground, but it is pretty smart about the terrain it does cover. The...

Hedgehogging.
June 1, 2006... Hedgehogging By Barton Biggs John Wiley & Sons Inc. 320 pages, $26.95 In this engaging book, part memoir and part essay, Barton Biggs shares observations from a long career on Wall Street along with his unique perspective on...

The Options Industry Council.(SOFTWARE)
June 1, 2006... The Options Industry Council (OIC) is expanding its investor education program by adding educational webcasts and podcasts to its Web site. More than 60 pages of the Web site have been converted to Simplified Chinese as part of the effort aimed...

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange.(EXCHANGES)
June 1, 2006... The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has launched end-of-month options for its CME S & P 500 and CME E-mini S & P 500 index futures, using a European-style expiration. Five market makers have been selected to help grow electronic end-of-month...

The London Metal Exchange.(EXCHANGES)
June 1, 2006... The London Metal Exchange (LME) has approved Muehlstein Americas LLC as the first Own Brand Distributor (OBD) for the LME's polypropylene and linear low density polyethylene futures contracts. www.lme.co.uk.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange.(EXCHANGES)
June 1, 2006... The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) will launch options on the CBOE Exchange Index (EXQ), an index based on stock prices of publicly traded U.S. exchanges, pending approval. The Index is composed of the of CBOT Holdings Inc. (BOT), CME...

The Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Oil and Gas and the Dubai Mercantile Exchange Ltd. have developed a new Middle East sour crude futures contract.(EXCHANGES)
June 1, 2006... The Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Oil and Gas and the Dubai Mercantile Exchange Ltd. have developed a new Middle East sour crude futures contract to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2006. www.dubaimerc.com.

Eurex.(EXCHANGES)
June 1, 2006... Eurex has launched options with weekly expiration dates on the benchmark indexes DAX, Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 and SMI. www.deutsche-boerse.com.

Dow Jones Indexes (DJI) and the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges.(INDEXES)
June 1, 2006... Dow Jones Indexes (DJI) and the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges (CASE) have launched the Dow Jones CASE Egypt Titans 20 Index. The index follows the methodology of the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 and includes 20 Egyptian stocks ranked by...

DJI.(INDEXES)(Dow Jones Indexes)(Dow Jones and Company Inc.)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... DJI will launch 10 customized, subsector indexes selected from large- and small-cap stocks. Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has licensed the indexes to serve as the basis for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that will be available in May. The new...

Calyon Financial.(BROKERAGE)
June 1, 2006... Calyon Financial now offers access to the Taiwan Futures Exchange (Taifex) and has established an omnibus account with the exchange, providing cross-border trading and investing and allowing the firm's clients to trade Taifex products without...

Contract dates.(Dateline)(Calendar)
June 1, 2006... 1 LTD: BM & F Alcohol OF, iBrX 50 F, CME May Mid-sized milk OF, May Milk F,OF. [TABLE OMITTED] 2 LTD: CME May Weather F., Live cattle OF, Nybot Jul Cocoa OF. 8 LTD: BM & F Alcohol F, CME Nikkei 225 F,OF, Eurex Bobl F, Bund F, Buxl...

Events coming up.(Calendar)
June 1, 2006... Call the numbers listed for more information. For other seminars, see the classifieds on pages 77-81. FXCM 1st Annual Currency Trading Expo. JUNE 3-4. Hilton Hotel, New York. www.fxcm.com. (212) 897-7660. TradingScreen 2006 Buy Side...

Claughton: finding trends early.(Trader Profile)(Claughton Capital)
June 1, 2006... Keith Ganzer, chief investment officer at Claughton Capital, says his Auto-Reactive Positioning (ARP) strategy provides managed futures portfolio managers positive returns when they need it most: during non-trending periods when trend followers...

Alphabetical company listings.(2006 GUIDE TO COMPUTERIZED TRADING)(Directory)
June 15, 2006... Listed here are companies that have computerized trading-related products and services featured in the list beginning on page 44. You will find each company's address, phone and fax numbers, as well as the categories in which it offers...

Product list.(2006 GUIDE TO COMPUTERIZED TRADING)(Directory)
June 15, 2006... This list contains the names of specific products and services offered by the companies listed in this year's guide. These are actual product names and not generic or descriptive terms. You will find contact information for companies offering...

Products & services.(2006 GUIDE TO COMPUTERIZED TRADING)(Directory)
June 15, 2006... This directory lists companies that offer products or services of interest to traders, investors or firms using a computer to trade or for trading-related business. Listed in alphabetical order by company, each listing includes the product...