June 14, 2005
Reminder
I will be in
Lead Stories
NASD v. SEC - SRO Challenges Commission In First-Of-A-Kind Fight
The NASD is challenging in federal court a Securities and Exchange Commission ruling on an NASD case--a motion never before made by a securities regulator or exchange, according to WSL sister publication Compliance Reporter.
http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/default.asp?page=1&SID=518378&ISS=16363&type=23
CME to List Seven New Weather Contracts in Cities in the
http://www.cme.com/about/press/cn/05-82SevenNewWeatherCities13556.html
Clearing service launches for physical power in US
Chicago, Illinois • June 8, 2005 • North American Energy Credit and Clearing (NECC), the Clearing Corporation (CCorp) and Atlanta-based commodity-trading platform IntercontinentalExchange (Ice) have launched a physical clearing service for the US energy markets.
http://db.riskwaters.com/public/showPage.html?page=282729
Individual investors no longer wary of futures markets
By Peter A. McKay, The Wall Street Journal
Not many individual investors have weathered the risks of the futures markets for as long as Bruce Reale, who started trading contracts on silver and Swiss francs more than 20 years ago.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05164/520948.stm
***** The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette picked up Peter McKay’s story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Here is the complete story without any log in required.
Soaring seat prices add to Nymex fears
All Financial Times NewsFloor traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange have plenty to worry about these days: volatile prices; the cost of doing business on the exchange; the future ownership of the world's largest energy futures exchange; and, most worrisome of all, the threat electronic trading poses to their livelihoods. The sale last week of a Nymex seat for a record $2.485m, about 25 per cent higher than the previous seat sale record set last October, was welcomed by James Newsome, Nymex president, as a vote of confidence in the exchange's future growth.
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=FT&Date=20050612&ID=4885109
****** And, MSN picked up the FT’s Nymex story from yesterday with the whole story available.
Morgan Stanley's Choices: New Direction or Better Execution?
By JENNY ANDERSON
On Wall Street, a world dominated by multibillion-dollar deals, seven-figure bonuses and exotic financial products like weather derivatives, the success of a firm might just rest on the most intangible and least financial element of all: culture. That is one big lesson from Morgan Stanley, where Philip J. Purcell, the battered chief executive, announced yesterday that he would leave the company after a sustained bout of "personal attacks" from a group of former executives who waged a lengthy campaign to oust him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/business/14wall.html?
AIMA
Seeks to promote sound disclosure and marketing practices
The Canadian chapter of the Alternative Investment Management Association today released a new guide that sets out recommended practices for promotional, marketing and presentation materials for both retail and privately offered alternative investments, as well as for general sales practices used to distribute these products.
http://www.investmentexecutive.com/client/en/News/DetailNews.asp?Id=29213&IdSection=1&cat=1
http://www.exchange-handbook.co.uk/news_story.cfm?id=53451
Environmental Trading News
Emissions Trading: European Commission Kicks Off Review Of The EU system
http://www.exchange-handbook.co.uk/news_story.cfm?id=53447
Exchange & ECN News
CME Cattle Traders Watch Funds In Wake Of BSE Test
CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Many Chicago Mercantile Exchange livestock futures traders arrived early Monday morning to compare ideas following Friday night's U.S. Department of Agriculture announcement that a U.S. meat sample once tested and believed negative for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, known commonly as mad-cow disease, has been re-tested and showed positive this time.
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=5265
CBOT Trader Newsletter: June 13, 2005
http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/cont_detail/0,3206,1027+28827,00.html
CBOT Strike Price Notice, June 14, 2005
http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/cont_detail/0,3206,1032+28836,00.html
CBOT Trading Position Change Notice, Wheat, June 15, 2005
http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/cont_detail/0,3206,1032+28835,00.html
New Weather Futures and Options on Futures Contracts
http://www.cme.com/clearing/clr/clradv/13548.html
June 2005 Final Foreign Currency Settlement Prices
http://www.cme.com/clearing/clr/clradv/13547.html
Brokerage Payment System (BPS) Parallel - REMINDER
http://www.cme.com/clearing/clr/clradv/13533.html
Nasdaq & E-mini Nasdaq Strike Rule & Minimum Tick Size Changes
http://www.cme.com/clearing/clr/clradv/13552.html
NYSE Seat Sells for $2,460,000
http://www.nyse.com/press/1118745698819.html
BEL Mid, BEL Small quarterly review and BEL20 ®
http://www.euronext.com/news/press_releases/0,4159,1732_8275,00.html
Deutsche Börse and
Joint Press Release from the Deutsche Börse Group,
Eurex Introduces Equity Option on Scandinavia’s Neste Oil Corporation
Major General Richard S. Colt, Commander, 77th Regional Readiness Support Command, U.S. Army Reserve, rings The Closing BellSM on June 14, 2005.
http://www.nyse.com/events/1118660421644.html
http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=5323208&subject=markets&action=article
KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 (Bernama) -- The Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), a 50:50 joint venture between the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. and Dubai Holding to develop West Asia's first energy futures exchange is expected to be ready for trading in early 2006.
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=139403
NSE tops global futures trading
It is to be noted that, as yet, stock futures are traded at relatively few exchanges across the world. The big two, NSE India and the Russian RTS Stock Exchange account for 62% of global volumes.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=93770
Download the latest X-Pand newsletter all X-pands
http://www.eurexchange.com/download/xpand/e_xpand_200579.pdf
Regulatory News
The SEC News Digest
The SEC News Digest provides daily information on recent Commission actions, including enforcement proceedings, rule filings, policy statements, and upcoming Commission meetings.
http://www.sec.gov/news/digest/dig061305.txt
Request for Information
Please contact Matthew Hoppe of NFA's Compliance Department at (312) 658-1590 or Vilia Sutkus-Kiela at (312) 658-4146 immediately if you currently carry or have ever carried any accounts (including joint accounts) for or directed by, or have otherwise ever transacted business with any of the following individuals or entities:
Pippin Investments
Stuart Pippin
http://www.nfa.futures.org/news/newsNotice.asp?ArticleID=1449
CFTC Charges Hugh J. Maddox with Fraudulent Trade Allocation Scheme
http://www.cftc.gov/opa/enf05/opa5081-05.htm
SEC freezes assets of Waxenberg funds, appoints Fowler White lawyer as receiver
The Securities and Exchange Commission has instituted an emergency action in federal court in
http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2005/06/13/daily21.html?from_rss=1
NASD Charges Gunnallen Broker With Threatening Public Company
http://www.nasd.com/web/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=5&ssSourceNodeId=5
SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Companies Publishes Agenda, Names Witness Panels, for
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2005-90.htm
SEC Charges Ford Credit with Unlawful Marketing of "Ford Money Market Account"
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2005-89.htm
FSA introduces tailored Handbooks for small firms
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2005/065.shtml
SEC Advisory Committee On Smaller Companies Publishes Agenda, Names Witness Panels, For
http://www.exchange-handbook.co.uk/news_story.cfm?id=53450
Managed Futures - Managed Funds
GLG Partners,
In particular, it has acknowledged that the mathematical model it used to price complex credit derivative products failed to foresee market swings after last month's ratings downgrades of General Motors and Ford.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d90bf12c-dc40-11d9-819f-00000e2511c8.html
**** Online FT subscription required.
Man Group says AHL fund NAV up 1.39 pct on last wk on June 13
http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=5324152&subject=companies&action=article
Reports
Bond Talk Today's Events
http://www.bondtalk.com/global.cfm?S=todaysevents
USDA Today
http://www.usda.gov/nass/PUBS/TODAYRPT/TODAY.HTM
Miscellaneous News
No hard feelings as Percy changes stable
Humphrey Percy, head of global futures at money-broker Icap, has quit, just over a year after joining the firm. As usual in the colourful world of these dealers, there are all sorts of stories doing the rounds, and the one from an Icap spokesman sounds particularly feeble.He says that since phase one of its futures operation is complete, Percy wants to concentrate on SGM-FX, a foreign exchange business he chairs.
**** Free subscription required.
Bond Woes Add To Banks' Problems
With even the fixed-income business faltering, bank earnings are looking dismal
Bond traders have been the new rainmakers on Wall Street, thanks to low interest rates, few defaults, and a rise in the number of aggressive fixed-income hedge funds. In fact, bonds have been one of the only bright spots in banking. Commercial lending is so fiercely competitive that banks are forced to slash rates. The chase for customer deposits is cutthroat. And the weak stock market is taking a toll on everything from money management and retail brokerage to fee generators such as mergers-and-acquisition advice.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_25/b3938108_mz020.htm
Group issues documents for derivatives on ABS
http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=8778286
Interactive Brokers to Launch Trading in Energy Futures on IPE, Nymex
Global direct-access broker Interactive Brokers LLC is adding major energy futures contracts to its Universal account that allows investors and professionals to trade multiple asset classes electronically in 14 countries.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050613/cgm061.html?.v=10
Progress Software Launches the Apama Algorithmic Trading Platform to
Progress Software Corporation , a global supplier of application infrastructure software used to develop, deploy, integrate and manage business applications, today announced it will launch the Progress Apama Algorithmic Trading Platform to the
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050614/145481.html?.v=1
Electronic Trading Newsflashes: Oracle to Acquire TimesTen Real-Time Data Management Software, and more
Oracle announced today it would acquire TimesTen, a privately held supplier of real-time data management software that is used in securities trading and other industry applications. The companies anticipate closing the transaction by the end of July 2005, subject to regulatory approvals.
http://www.financetech.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=164301842
Hedge risk to develop discipline
http://www.agweekly.com/articles/2005/06/13/news/markets/business01.txt
Lehman profit jumps 12%
Second best quarter ever, despite tougher markets
http://www.investmentexecutive.com/client/en/News/DetailNews.asp?Id=29211&IdSection=5&cat=5
New Bankruptcy Act Impacts Derivatives Industry
(PRWEB) June 14, 2005 -- Thirty bankers and derivatives counsel came to hear Ellen H. Clark, a New York-based derivatives lawyer with Salans international law firm, speak on Tuesday, June 7th, about the recently adopted Bankruptcy Act of 2005 signed into law by President Bush on April 20, 2005. Although the Act was meant in large part to curb abuses by profligate debtors, buried in its 185 pages
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/prweb/20050614/bs_prweb/prweb250163_4
TradePortal, a software developer for the financial services industry specializing in direct market access technology, today announced that it has opened new doors to
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050614/latu051.html?.v=14
Charles Schwab Trading Volume Up in May
Discount brokerage Charles Schwab Corp. said Tuesday that its daily trading volume in May rose sharply from the year before but was down moderately from April.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050614/charles_schwab_volume.html?.v=1
The Charles Schwab Corporation Reports Monthly Activity Highlights
The Charles Schwab Corporation released its Monthly Market Activity Report today. Company highlights for the month of May 2005 include:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050614/sftu040a.html?.v=1
Profiting From Active Trading
Frequent trading -- bad for the individual investor, but very good for the likes of Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH - News). While business was largely down across the board from the first quarter, good year-over-year performance in the capital markets segment fueled pretty respectable numbers for the second quarter.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/fool/20050614/bs_fool_fool/111877128614
Other Voices
Today’s Other Voices contribution is from Beth Keeve of the CME, offering me a hearty dose of my own medicine.
Dear Mr. Lothian:
Please consider this letter for inclusion in the “Other Voices” section of your newsletter, as I am responding to the section of your June 8 column regarding your comments on equity ownership at CME. You do not have your facts straight about CME.
CME has created broad-based employee equity programs to align the interests of our employees with CME’s shareholders, and approximately 80 percent of all CME employees participate in and benefit from these programs. These programs include annual grants of stock options and restricted stock awards for CME Staff Officers, as well as annual discretionary performance-based grants and one-time tenure-based grants for all employees. Consider the following facts not mentioned in your recent column:
• CME has granted stock options to all of our Staff Officers;
• CME has granted options to nearly 80 percent of our current non-officer staff (by contrast, only 13 percent of employees in most public companies are typically eligible for stock options). CME granted stock options and/or restricted stock not only to senior management, but to more than 100 other outstanding employee contributors before our December 2002 IPO.
• CME established a directed share program at the time of our IPO that allowed all full -time employees (employed as of Jan. 1, 2002) and their families the valuable right to purchase shares at the IPO price.
CME has also just established an employee stock purchase plan that allows our employees (but not our Management Team) to buy CME stock at a discount through payroll deductions. Since April when we adopted this program, we have already enrolled 200 employees.
CME is committed to making CME a great place to work and to aligning the interests of our employees with our shareholders. To achieve that, we have adopted a strong set of equity programs that were not accurately reflected in your column. We hope you will correct the record because we are extremely proud that we have such a great team at CME to help us grow and work to create more shareholder value going forward.
Beth Keeve
CME Managing Director
Organizational Development
John's Comments
From Leo Melamed
New remarks by Leo Melamed have been posted to the Leo Melamed website (www.leomelamed.com).
"Knowledge Tag," is the commencement address at
The essay can be found under "Essays & Speeches - Recent." Click on the following link to go directly to the essay: http://www.leomelamed.com/Speeches/05-depaul.htm
If you have any comments or questions, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Leo Melamed
********
Current Crude Watch
IPE Brent Volume: 124,142
NYMEX Brent Crude Volume: 6485
NYMEX Percent of Total Volume: 4.96%
********
Percent Electronic
CBOT: 55.37%
CME: 74.59%
CME Eurodollars: 80.90%
CME Live Cattle: 1.63%
CME Currency Products: 79.92%
CBOT Soybeans: 4.75%
CBOT Options: 12.70%
CME Options: 7.11%
Volume
OneChicago Volume: 30,762
Eurex
Euronext.liffe Eurodollar Volume: 27,316
CBOE Futures Exchange Volume: 1186
Market Share
CBOT 100 oz. Gold Volume: 2787
NYMEX 100 oz. Gold Volume: 64,481
CBOT Share: 4.14%
CBOT 5000 oz. Silver Volume: 164
NYMEX 5000 oz. Silver Volume: 10,212
CBOT Share: 1.57%
CBOT Mini Gold Volume: 920
CBOT Mini Silver Volume: 345
CME Emini Russell 1000 (100X) Volume: 7424 * record
Eurex
NYBOT Mini Russell 1000 (50X) Volume: 8092
CFE Mini Russell 1000 (100X) Volume: 0
CME Emini Russell 2000 Volume: 200,618 *record
Eurex
CFE Mini Russell 2000 Volume: 145
Notes: The CBOT traded 51 Bund contracts, 100 Bobl futures and 200 Schatz contracts yesterday.
Liffe Eurodollar Over-Under
Liffe/Globex: 2.02%
Liffe/CME: 1.64%
Regards,
John J. Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian Newsletter
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Disclaimer: The John Lothian Newsletter is a product of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. The opinions expressed are strictly the opinion of John Lothian, and not necessarily those of his employer, 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. Security futures are not suitable for all customers.
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