The Justinian

I’ve recently realized that the industry I work in is a microcosm of markets globally. Retail spot forex (foreign exchange, currency trading, FX) has rapidly gone through the phases of initiation and fast growth, and is in the middle of the “new competition” phase in the United States at least. This is where […]

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 […]

A friend sent me over an article. If you work on Wall Street, have aspirations to work on Wall Street, or even if you just work, you should read it.

I read an article recently in the Wall Street Journal about a guy who shook the sports betting market when his picks were released. This article mentions the size of the sports betting volume rivaling the GDP of New Zealand. It’s no wonder why the United States would want to keep this money […]

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 […]

Hedge funds recently ticked up above the $2 trillion mark after record monthly inflows. Mutual funds, not to be outdone, themselves passed the $10 trillion mark according to the Wall Street Journal:
Mutual-fund assets surpassed $10 trillion for the first time in October, according the fund industry’s trade group, the Investment Company Institute. Mutual-fund assets […]

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 […]

Bid $5 billion. That’s what the Nasdaq chose to do in its latest effort to purchase the London Stock Exchange. The LSE has twice rejected Nasdaq’s offer, first for the equivalent of 950p (in March 2006), and this time for over 25% more, or 12.43 sterling. It seems the American exchange that […]

Dreaming of one day running your own hedge fund? You may be too late to the party. As more and more managers have chased after the potential for compensation in the tens and hundreds of millions, the returns offered by funds have dwindled substantially, to the point where funds are not even able […]