The Justinian

In recent articles I’ve discussed the two primary options for trading the price of oil directly. One is oil futures, and the other the oil ETF (exchange traded fund, symbol USO). I recently became aware of another option, which is as close as a private investor can get to trading spot oil, to […]

If you read my article on trading oil futures, you know that trading oil can be very expensive if you’re on the wrong side of the trade in terms of the carry charge. Another option worth exploring is the oil ETF, short for exchange traded fund. For a general explanation of the term […]

I’m going to get a bit technical here, so please pardon me.
However it’s well worth it if you’ve ever invested in an instrument related to the price of oil, or if you look to in the future. There are far too many ways to invest in oil, and some of them are not […]

China dominates headlines when it comes to foreign exchange reserves and global trade imbalances. Every day a new article is posted on one of the major financial news outlets decrying China’s continuing buildup of foreign reserves, and their increasingly large trade surplus with the US. When their reserves moved past the $1 trillion […]

Oil is big news, and these days movements in the US Dollar–known euphemistically as the greenback–are as well. It’s rare, however, that the dollar is at risk of being affected by a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). That may change next week.
OPEC has been in the news of […]

Nowhere is the move from floor-traded exchanges to electronic trading more obvious than on the NYMEX, the New York Mercantile Exchange. In the past, and especially leading up to that exchange’s recent IPO, seat prices–which gave the owner the right to trade on the exchange’s floor along with voting right and partial ownership–were the […]

I’ve made mention of the fierce NY-London financial rivalry in a previous post. For the uninitiated, the basic argument is that restrictive laws and policies (like Sarbanes-Oxley) have caused New York to lose its edge in financial markets. Large companies looking to go public have instead turned to London and in many cases […]

Ok it’s an admittedly arrogant title, especially considering we’re not in the business of writing recommendations.  While I will make statements of opinion from time to time, I’m mostly interested in providing a daily sampling of the most interesting developments in the financial world. 
Nevertheless, the news that China will be diversifying its $1 trillion + […]

Read any semi-sophisticated financial mag or publication and you’ll see the same terms used over and over. The same five to ten catch phrases are used daily to explain a wide variety of market movements. The classics? “Reserve diversification” explains the forex market’s gyrations, “inflation fears” are to blame for falls in stocks and rises […]

The new larger CME announces it will allow traders to trade “Credit Event Futures” based on credit-default swaps, a whopping $26 trillion over-the-counter market. The new futures contracts will only be three companies to start until further approval from the CFTC. They include the: Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune; home builder Centex Corp.; […]