Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) articles from March 2009

Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) archives from March 2009

No specs in CDS market.(WHEN LEGISLATORS ATTACK)
March 1, 2009... Industry insiders who hoped that Congress' attacks on speculators in 2008 would slow down in 2009 were likely disappointed about the introduction of The Derivatives Markets Transparency Accountability Act of 2009. The legislation by House...

Consolidation hits FX.(SHRINKING WORLD)
March 1, 2009... Prompted by aggressive new capitalization requirements and the threat of greater regulatory oversight, consolidation in the forex market continues, most recently with FXCM's acquisition of the U.S. retail client bases of Hotspot FXr LLC and ODL...

SGX revises clearing.(International News)
March 1, 2009... Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) announced proposals to revise the clearing fund structure of SGX-Derivatives Clearing. The exchange is proposing a risk-based approach for clearing members with the SGX-DC Clearing Fund structure.

CME and JSE launch corn.(International News)
March 1, 2009... CME Group and the South Africa-based JSE have agreed to create a new 100 metric ton cash-settled corn futures contract based on the CME settlement prices. Contracts will be listed, traded and settled by JSE's Safex division.

PBOT no more.(International News)
March 1, 2009... On Jan. 20, Nasdaq OMX announced that the Philadelphia Board of Trade (PBOT) was renamed the Nasdaq OMX Futures Exchange. In July 2008, Nasdaq OMX acquired PBOT when it bought the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

Mini Hang Seng in play.(International News)
March 1, 2009... Hong Kong Futures Exchange Limited received approval from the CFTC to sell its mini futures contracts based on the Hang Seng Index (HSI) and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index in the United States.

Doman named CEO of Russell Investments.(Trading Places)
March 1, 2009... Andrew S. Doman was named chief executive officer at Russell Investments. Previously, he was a founding director of McKinsey & Company Inc.'s UK-based European asset management practice. "Russell is an extraordinary company at an extraordinary...

Are more hedge fund regs on the way?(Managed Money Review)
March 1, 2009... After completing a disastrous year in financial markets, capped by the $50 billion Bernie Madoff scandal, many experts believe a wave of regulation may be on the way. Jeff Blumberg, partner at Drinker Biddle and a member of its investment...

Gold bugging.(Hot Commodities)
March 1, 2009... Since New Years, gold prices have increased more than $100 per ounce, trading to $915 in early February. Tom Hartmann, broker analyst for Altavest Worldwide Trading Inc., says there has been a tightening of the trading range because of the...

Euro under achiever.(Hot Commodities)
March 1, 2009... After recovering more than half of its losses in December from the bear move off of its all-time high, the euro is declining again, dropping from 147.19 on Dec. 19 to 127.02 on Feb. 2. "After that peak, the euro collapsed again," says Joseph...

Managing crude volatility with ETFs.(Market Strategy)
March 1, 2009... Since hitting record highs last summer, the price of crude oil remained volatile as many consumers cut back on their spending, causing demand to drop rapidly and inventories to increase. There are many traders who think the OPEC production cuts...

2009 equities outlook: taking stock: with one of the worst years in the stock market's history behind us, an only recently acknowledged recession and a deteriorating job market, our experts offer insights as to where equity markets are heading in 2009.(MARKETS)
March 1, 2009... As Americans headed into the holidays, the National Bureau of Economic Research threw a wet blank on the season by acknowledging in early December that the United States was in a recession and had been since November 2007. Retail spending...

Crisis investing with ETFs: financial markets were created to bring balance to the brick-and-mortar economy by providing liquidity and credit. Now, the real economy has entered a period of contraction thanks to the lack of liquidity of the financial world. Exchange-traded funds are solid tools for equity investors trying to weather the storm.(EQUITY TRADING TECHNIQUES)
March 1, 2009... Back in the day, the down payment required to buy a first home was about 50%. In addition, banks would assess other variables, such as income and existing credit, rigorously before granting the loan for an individual to buy a home. Down payment...

Building a better strangle: you can use option expiration breakeven prices to build spreads based on the short option strangle strategy. The upper and lower price ranges are also useful for any put or call sales or purchases because they show what the market is currently expecting related to future price spreads.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
March 1, 2009... One option spread strategy that requires a trader to estimate relevant high and low strike prices between the trade date and expiration is the short option strangle. As defined by James Cordier and Michael Gross in "The Complete Guide to Option...

Hybrid trading techniques: hybrid trading tools fall somewhere between black-box systems and fully exposed trading techniques and potentially combine the positives of each approach into a transparent, fast and automated trading solution.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
March 1, 2009... Day-trading stock index futures is challenging and rewarding. There is a great sense of accomplishment in dueling successfully with the sharp knife that is the electronic futures market. Electronic futures day-trading offers the possibility of...

Doomsday hedging: when markets experience volatility spikes, many trading assumptions regarding correlations fly out the window. Doomsday scenarios require doomsday hedging and doomsday management. Here is a simple method that will keep you relatively dry in the in the worst of market storms.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
March 1, 2009... For the past six months, the currency market has not been kind to its traders. In the euro market, we were accustomed to having about 80 pips of noise on the four-hour chart before a trend developed, but now we have seen, in this...

Technical analysis in event-driven markets: when consumer spending is down, the Fed will cut rates in response and then the market rallies. When consumer spending is up, inflation is coming and the market falls. What's bullish one day is bearish the next, and vice versa. Smart traders don't trust the news. They turn to technicals.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
March 1, 2009... Event-driven markets are a common deterrent to many would-be technical analysts. After all, how can lines on a chart make sense of a market that appears to change direction on news events? A common refrain on business news programs during the...

Know your broker: even the best trading plan won't work if you don't have the right broker. A broker can guide you to trading success, but only if there is a solid relationship. Here's how to find the perfect fit.(FUTURES 101)
March 1, 2009... Your broker can be the most important person in your trading life, so you shouldn't enter into a relationship with one lightly. You have to know who you're dealing with and make sure they know and can give you what you want. If you don't, you...

Top traders of 2008: for all of the red ink sprawled across financial statements in 2008, one asset class, managed futures, had its best year in almost two decades. Will the 2008 performance lead to an epiphany in asset allocation, or is everyone too busy licking their wounds to notice that they didn't have to lose money in 2008?(MANAGED MONEY)(Cover story)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You have to go back to 1990 when the Barclay CTA index had a higher return, 21.02%, than the 14.11% in 2008. The index produced several 20% plus years in the 1980s, but the entire industry was much smaller and the...

ETFs: Coming of age: the financial world took it on the chin in 2008, and the drubbing continues. While exchange-traded funds are not immune to the global beat down, these flexible investment vehicles are showing serious staying power, while financial instruments of all types are tested.(ETF GUIDE)
March 1, 2009... If 2007 was the year that exchange-traded funds (ETFs) demonstrated they were major players in the financial arena, then 2008 was the year they came of age. Amid a persistent slide in equities, turmoil in interest rates, volatility in forex and...

Dreiss: surf's up for profits.(Trader Profile)
March 1, 2009... In a year that produced explosive returns for old line long-term trend followers, it is only right that we profile one of the method's founding fathers. Edward (Bill) Dreiss got a job at a San Francisco think tank after graduating from the...

Kospi leads Korean expansion; options on Korea's Kospi 200 stock index were the world's first large-scale mini contract and remain the world's most deep and liquid derivatives contract. Kospi futures and options became available to U.S. investors at the end of November. Will the world bite?(TRADE TRENDS)
March 1, 2009... In-Soo Kim remembers his first trip to Chicago in 1995, when he worked in training and research for the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE). "There was no futures and options market in Korea back then," says Kim, who in April of 2008 became executive...

Interactive Brokers' Risk Navigator.
March 1, 2009... Interactive Brokers' Risk Navigator One Pickwick Plaza Greenwich, CT 06830 USA Overall Rating: *** Cost: Free download Available from www.interactivebrokers.com Requirements: Java plug in The Interactive Brokers...

Contract dates.(Dateline)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1 LTD: BM&F Alcohol OF 3 LTD: CBOT Cash Settled Ethanol F, Ethanol F 4 LTD: Euronext-Liffe Corn F 5 LTD: ICE Apr Cocoa OF, U.S. Dollar Index OF, Euro Index OF, Eurex Fixed Income F 8 LTD: ICE Cotton...