John
Lothian's Daily Futures & Securities Industry Newsletter
July 22, 2002
Lead
Stories
The
SEC News Digest
OPEN
MEETING - WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2002 - 2:30 P.M.
The subject matter of the open meeting scheduled for Wednesday, July
24, 2002, will be:
The
Commission will consider whether to adopt rules
governing customer margin for security futures. The rules
would be adopted jointly with the Commodity Futures Trading
Commission pursuant to Section 7(c)(2) of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), which, among other
things, requires that the customer margin requirements for security
futures be consistent with the margin requirements for
comparable option contracts traded on any
exchange registered
pursuant to Section 6(a) of the Exchange Act and provide for initial
and maintenance margin levels that are not lower than the
lowest level of margin, exclusive of premium, required
for comparable exchange-traded options.
http://www.sec.gov/news/digest/07-19.txt
NYSE:
Fasten Your Seatbelts
The head of the New York Stock Exchange cautions that Wall Street may face a
bumpy ride when the markets open Monday.
http://news.lycos.com/news/story.asp?section=LycosBusiness&storyId=54018
WorldCom
Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Scandal-ridden WorldCom Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last night to
stave off creditors.
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzwor222795959jul22.story?coll=ny%2Dtop%2Dheadlines
Stocks
Stabilize After Initial Plunge
Wall Street stabilized at least temporarily in early trading Monday following
Friday’s big plunge. The Dow Jones industrials and other market indicators were
narrowly mixed.
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-biz-stoxup0722.story?coll=ny%2Dtop%2Dheadlines
Why
options reforms are gaining
http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-options22.html
SEC
Expansion Awaits Funds, Markets Fret
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020720/bs_nm/economy_sec_dc_1
Day
Trading Circus Over, Just Not Entirely
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020720/wr_nm/bizdaytraders_dc_2
18
reasons to trade Euronext.liffe's Schatz
http://www.liffe.com/products/ir-publications/schatz.pdf
The
Power of Politics and the World of De-Regulation, Over-Regulation and
No-Regulation, eyeforenergy
Altegris
Amicably Secedes from Man Financial
LA JOLLA,
Calif. (HedgeWorld.com)—After eight years of serving as a unit of the Man
Financial Group*, Jon Sundt’s alternative investment team has spun-off ...
http://www.hedgeworld.com/news/read_news.cgi?section=strt&story=strt3170.html
USDA
Recalls 18.6 Million Pounds of ConAgra Beef Due to E.Coli Scare (Dow Jones)
... and consumers are growing accustomed to recalls, resulting in little major
movement at the CME....
Short
selling needs regulation - FT.com site, Jul 21, 2002 - By David Varney
Short selling - selling future options in expectation of a fall in prices - by
hedge funds and the aggressive institutional...
Exchange
News
Trading
Starts 15 Minutes Earlier on 29 July 2002
http://www.tiffe.or.jp/press/20020729kokogyo.html
TIFFE
Executive
http://www.tiffe.or.jp/what/index1.html
New
Zealand Stock Exchange gets smart on market surveillance
New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZSE) has installed Computershare's Smarts
electronic surveillance system as its steps up efforts to track insider traders
and market manipulators.
http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=6238
CBOE
introduces large order e-trading
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has launched a new Large Order
Utility (LOU) system enabling the instantaneous execution of large-sized orders
that previously were not eligible for electronic execution.
http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=6235
Annual
Changes To The Nasdaq Financial-100 Index
http://www.exchange-handbook.co.uk/news_story.cfm?id=39029
Deutsche
Börse: 14 New Exchange-Traded Funds In XTF Segment
European
ETF Market Now Has More Products On Offer Than U.S. - All 18 Dow Jones STOXX
600 Sector Indices Tradable As ETFs For First Time - XTF
Leading Segment For Exchange Traded Funds In Europe
http://www.exchange-handbook.co.uk/news_story.cfm?id=39027
London
Stock Exchange: New Exchange Service To Benefit Private Client Brokers
http://www.exchange-handbook.co.uk/news_story.cfm?id=39026
Tokyo
Stock Exchange: Deliverable Bonds And Conversion Factors Of JGB Futures
(5-year, 10-year & 20-year) As Of July 22, 2002
http://www.exchange-handbook.co.uk/news_story.cfm?id=39025
New
York Board of Trade Preps to Go Live With Wireless Handhelds
http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/story/electronicTrading/WST20020718S0009
Regulatory
News
SEC's
Pitt Downplays Fears of Restatements Wave (Reuters)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt, battling a crisis
in market confidence, on Friday said he
expected most companies would meet an SEC deadline next month to certify their
companies' most recent financial results.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020719/ts_nm/financial_sec_pitt_dc_3
Defiant
SEC chief has no regrets (FT.com)
... and Senator
John McCain, the influential Republican, arguing that the SEC chief's past as a
lawyer and lobbyist for the
accounting industry has compromised his current...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ft/020719/1027089294943_1.html
NASD
Prepares Action Against Salomon's Grubman (Dow Jones)
Reports
Bond
Talk Today's Events
http://www.bondtalk.com/global.cfm?S=todaysevents
Miscellaneous
News
Louis
Dreyfus Energy Services to License Caminus Software Suite (PR Newswire)
Caminus Corporation, the leading provider of software and services to energy
market participants worldwide, today announced that
Louis Dreyfus Energy Services, the US energy trading subsidiary of the Louis
Dreyfus Group, has licensed Caminus' Nucleus
software suite to conduct straight through processing of physical and financial
gas transactions
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020722/nym035_1.html
Canadian
Trading and Quotation System appoints General Counsel (Canada NewsWire)
The Canadian Trading and Quotation System Inc. today announced the appointment
of Mr. Timothy Baikie to the position of
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for CNQ. Mr. Baikie has been a
consultant to CNQ over the past three months and has
played an instrumental role in shaping the rules and policies of CNQ as it
seeks to be the first market for emerging companies to be
recognized by the Ontario Securities Commission.
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/020719/cnq_appnts_gencounsel_1.html
Officials
Rethink WTC Plans
Plans for the devastated World Trade Center site may be changed to feature less
commercial development
http://news.lycos.com/news/story.asp?section=LycosCulture&storyId=54015
New
Yorkers Oppose New Trade Center Plans (Reuters)
... said Tessa Molina of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, whose late husband worked
for brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th
floor of the North Tower....
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020721/ts_nm/attack_newyork_wtc_dc_3
Private
exchanges pick up where the e-marketplace leaves off, ComputerWorld
56BFA000B61DC%21OpenDocument%26n%3DSections%26c%3DeBusiness
Bunge
Increases Grain Position With Bid of $830 Million for Cereol (Dow Jones)
... making it a much bigger rival of Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE: ADM - News)
Co . and Cargill Inc. in one of the most lucrative
parts of the grain-processing industry.
Better
than Stuffing Cash in Your Mattress (Morningstar.com)
Safe, short-term investments that still pay decent income.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ms/020722/78327_1.html
Controlled
Risk (Forbes Magazine)
...Then buy the QQQ (the exchange-traded fund-...
http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/020719/controlled_risk_2.html
Poaching
trial a test of gentlemanly conduct (FT.com)
..." trial between Icap and Cantor Fitzgerald, arch-rivals in the
interdealer broking sphere....
http://biz.yahoo.com/ft/020719/1027089294854_1.html
Job
cuts likely as bond issues beat a retreat (FT.com)
Bond teams at investment banks, once the bright spot of capital markets, are
preparing for a round of cost-cutting as the issuance of
new bonds dries up.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ft/020722/1027089317667_1.html
Nigeria
set to leave OPEC - report...
http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?j43084930
The
Stock Game: Brokers vs. the S&P 500
Explanation : Each Sunday, local financial advisers pick a stock in a sector
determined by the editors of the Business section. Their choices will be
printed here in the investing pages. Investing in equity securities is
inherently risky.
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2002/07/21/19737.php
The
crash of 2002
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Dow Jones industrial average sank to its lowest
level in nearly four years Friday in a selloff that only further highlighted
the drastic loss of confidence in the stock markets in the United States.
http://www.alltheweb.com/go/4/H/news/http/money.cnn.com/2002/07/19/markets/markets_newyork/index.htm
Citigroup
Deals Helped Enron Disguise Its Debts as Trades (Dow Jones)
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C - News) arranged an unusual financing technique for
Enron Corp. ( ENRNQ) that enabled the
energy trader to appear rich in cash rather than saddled with debt, Monday's
Wall Street Journal reported, citing internal
documents of both companies.
Reuters
powers E*Trade Japan equity service
E*Trade Japan has selected Reuters to deliver a new real-time Japanese language
equity service for individual investors.
http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=6239
Sidney
J. Weinberg on Corporate Governance
http://www.gs.com/news/articles/news_article_1027103763.html
John's
Comments
The CME's
Emini S&P contract set a new Open Interest record on Friday, with 327,751
contracts open.
************
"Trade
the $5 Dow Day" is scheduled for Thursday, July 25.
Here are
some of the dynamics of the $5 Dow versus the emini S&P:
The
non-member exchange fees to trade a $5 Dow are $2.14, versus non-member fees of
$2.32 for the emini S&P. This is just one factor in quantifying your
trading costs, but the $5 Dow exchange fees are less costly.
Based on
current prices, the contract value of the $5 Dow at 8000 is $40,000. The
contract value of the emini S&P at 839.00 is $41,950. Pretty
even.
The tick
value of the $5 Dow is $5. The tick value of the emini S&P is $12.50.
Smaller tick value means it is easier to step in front and be the best bid or
offer.
The $5 Dow
trades on a/c/e, the emini trades on Globex. a/c/e traded 529,642 contracts on
Friday and Globex traded 977,378 contracts. Both systems handle
significant volume on a daily basis.
Quote
deals:
Free
Real Time Dow Quotes
Real-time
streaming quotes, news and charts.
https://equotes.cme.com/wlcs/commerce/productmarketing.jsp
All I am
asking equity indices traders to do is spend 15 minutes or one trade time frame
trading the $5 Dow on Thursday and lets see if we can double the volume record
for the contract and get the CBOT to give us a "Fee Holiday" for the
$5 Dow for the following Thursday.
***************
Emini
S&Ps - 1 million?????
When will
the emini S&Ps trade 1 million contracts in a single day? If you send
me your guess and your guess for the total volume of emini S&P trades that
day you could win a free CME Globe T-Shirt, courtesy of The Price Futures
Group.
Globe T-Shirt
http://www.cme.com/about_cme/gift_shop/giftitem.cfm?categoryID=000D2A37-57C0-1A6F-8DB0809DEFD80000
This is an
$8 value! One entry per newsletter recipient. Contest only open to those
who receive the John Lothian Newsletter directly. Click here to
sign up so you can enter the contest. All entries must be received by
Friday, July 26 by noon.
Regards,
John J.
Lothian
The Price
Futures Group, Inc.
Electronic
Trading Division
Chicago
Board of Trade Building
141 West
Jackson Boulevard, Suite 1340A
Chicago, IL
60604
Phone:
1-800-713-0215 or 312-648-2426
Fax:
312-902-6437
Web site: www.pricegroupetd.com
E-Mail: JLothian@pricegroup.com
Disclaimer: This letter is strictly the opinion of its writer, and not
necessarily those of The Price Group and its management, and is intended solely
for informative
purposes and is not to be construed, under any circumstances, by implication or
otherwise, as an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy or trade in any
commodities or
securities herein named. Information is obtained from sources believed to be
reliable, but is in no way guaranteed. No guarantee of any kind is
implied or possible
where projections of future conditions are attempted.
Futures and
options trading involves risk. Past results are no indication of future
performance.