Futures trading history buffs are in mourning today, as the CME moves into a brave new world without pork bellies futures contract trading. The oldest existing CME livestock futures contract has seen a sharp decrease in volume over the years as the food processing industry transitioned away from the slabs of frozen pork and towards […]
Category: Managed Futures
18
Jul
2011
15
Jul
2011
The Debt Ceiling, T-Bills, & Your Managed Futures Account
We’ve been putting the following simple question to some higher ups at the FCMs we work with this week: What would happen to client Tbill holdings should Congress not pass the debt ceiling legislation and the FCM can’t get redeem Tbills held in client accounts ? While this was at one time unthinkable and essentially […]
14
Jul
2011
Inside the Zero
One of the comments that came up recently in an attack on managed futures was that futures trading is a zero sum game. This raised a couple of eyebrows among our readers, so we thought we’d take a moment to explain. Futures trading is a zero sum game in so far as there is one […]
14
Jul
2011
All that Glitters… Reminders on Gold
It’s been back to back days of gold making new highs- today, as Moody’s threatens yet again to downgrade U.S. debt ratings if they can’t get their political act together. With gold tipping over $1590, we thought it made sense to pause and take note of a few things… 1) This isn’t as crowded a […]
12
Jul
2011
Gold/Swiss at New All-Time Highs (in Euro terms)
While we see the effects the Greek (and now Italy) debt problems on our own US markets, with news of problems usually resulting in a move lower in US stocks (which is usually followed at some point by a resumption of the rally, but we’ll leave that for another day) – it isn’t as clear […]
12
Jul
2011
Money Can’t Buy You Happiness, but….
Our weekly newsletter is up, and this time around, we’re delving into the world of the wealthy, and the categories that come with it. It turns out that the lifestyles of the rich and the famous extend far beyond access to Bugatti Roadsters , yachts to pull up alongside happiness, and expensive caviar. Wealth, in and […]
11
Jul
2011
Last Week’s Wrap Up
Despite the downward spiral you may be seeing on stock tickers tonight, last week actually wasn’t bad for the stock market, with the Nasdaq leading the pack at 2.26% and the S&P 500 bringing up the rear with gains of just .52%. Treasuries continued to do well, with 30 year bonds jumping 1.71% and ten […]
11
Jul
2011
CME Introducing Chinese Yuan Futures
The CME made the Wall Street Journal today (although they are likely in there more than they are not), as they reported on the pending introduction of a Chinese Yuan contract to their offerings. As the article explains, the burgeoning foreign exchange trade makes this move a no-brainer of sorts, and could open the door […]
08
Jul
2011
Ice Heats Up Crude Oil Exchange Competition
Last week, we took a look at the somewhat unique situation of WTI Crude Futures being in Contango while their near identical twin, Brent Crude Futures were in backwardation; and now a recent article from the Wall Street Journal (you can see the full text here) highlighted an interesting consequence of these pricing anomalies – […]
08
Jul
2011
Rydex and Wisdom Tree Managed Futures Products- June 2011
With June’s estimates in, it’s time to take a look at how managed futures stacked up against Rydex’s Managed Futures Fund and Wisdom Tree’s Managed Futures ETF. We’ve made our grievances with them clear several times over (see here and here), but prefer to let the data speak for itself. *[YTD Data starts as of 1/06/2011, first day […]
