Commodity Traders’ $1 Million Bonus as Oil Doubles

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aafaX5C3qFmA
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street firms are again recruiting commodities traders with promises of $1 million bonuses as prices of raw materials from oil to copper double.

Less than a year after oil tumbled a record 54 percent and the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index was suffering its biggest drop ever, Bank of America Corp. plans to boost commodity headcount by 25 percent. London-based Barclays Plc will increase staff about 6 percent. Morgan Stanley is recruiting traders in shipping. The banks declined to comment on compensation.

Stocks slide, dollar gains

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNHdNnf9dDHY
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks tumbled around the world, led by China, while the yen, dollar and Treasuries rose as investors speculated that a rally in riskier assets has outpaced prospects for economic growth. Energy and commodity prices also slid.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFCS3BWplJOY
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Former Credit Suisse Group AG broker Eric Butler was convicted of fraudulently selling millions of dollars in subprime securities to corporate clients.

Interaction between MеtaTrader 4 and MATLAB Engine

http://articles.mql4.com/833
MetaTrader 4 and the MATLAB mathematical package have gained high popularity among users due to their positive characteristics, including "flexibility" in creation of complex calculation systems. There are three main ways of MATLAB connection with external applications, but only one of them is recommended - use of the virtual desktop MATLAB Engine. This method guarantees the full compatibility with the whole MATLAB package. Many programmers avoid this method for below reasons:

• Many users find it slow. This is true, if compared with the direct function call from DLL libraries of MATLAB. The main delay takes place at the beginning of operation, when the virtual machine is called because of the call of numerous libraries that are uploaded into the virtual space of the calling process (in our case MetaTrader 4).
  
• Transferability of the project. True, when transferring a project to another computer all MATLAB DLL libraries must also be transferred, though as well as when direct call is used, to know the "relations" of the latter ones, i.e. start queue!
  
• Obligatory knowledge of C++ or Fortran. Well, if you know MQL4, you can easily learn C++ and vice versa.
  

Why I recommend this method:

1. This is the most reliable and independent from the MATLAB version method of connection with external programs. You can change MATLAB version and your indicators or Expert Advisors won't notice it. This is the most important advantage.
   
2. It has a relatively quick development method. It doesn't require debuggers, and it will make no difficulties to write the DLL wrapper.
   
3. "Common desktop" for several indicators and/or Expert Advisors. I consider this method useful when we need to make a decision based on data of several indicators or in the implementation of a pyramid trade.
   

This article describes the way of connecting MetaTrader 4 and MATLAB ver. 7.4.0 (R2007a) via a "DLL-wrapper" written in Borland C++ Builder 6. Programmers who prefer Microsoft products will have to adapt examples to their compiler (good luck to you in this complicated matter!).

China offers Silver Investments

Forexcoding.com beta launch

First projects posted to forexcoding.com - http://forexcoding.com

Forex Projects on Code Plex

http://www.codeplex.com/site/search?projectSearchText=forex

Elite eFibo Trader released on MQL4.com

http://codebase.mql4.com/5882

Canadian Intervention Not Likely

http://marcchandler.blogspot.com/2009/08/canadian-intervention-highly-doubtful.html
There is much talk today, circulating NY dealing rooms, that the Bank of Canada is getting ready to intervene in the foreign exchange market. We are dubious are that the BOC would intervene unilaterally on the CAD/USD exchange rate. In fact, we cannot recall a single episode of BOC intervening on CAD/USD in recent years, if ever.Last week, when US dollar had a CAD1.07 handle and Euro-Cad was near 1.5350 that the Canadian dollar looked vulnerable.

Cities Tolerate Homeless Camps – Madoff wowed young regulators

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124994409537920819.html
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Last summer, police responding to complaints about campfires under a highway overpass found dozens of homeless people living on public land along the Cumberland River.

Eviction notices went up -- and then were suspended by Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, a Democrat, who said housing for the homeless should be found first.

A year later, little has been found -- and Nashville, with help from local nonprofits, is now servicing a tent city, arranging for portable toilets, trash pickup, a mobile medical van and visits from social workers. Volunteers bring in firewood for the camp's 60 or so dwellers.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08112009/gossip/pagesix/madoff_wowed_kid_probers_183931.htm
YOUNG, inexperienced government regulators were so wowed by Bernard Madoff's ritzy Midtown headquarters that they asked about job openings and dropped off resumes while missing clear evidence he was running a massive Ponzi scheme, a new book claims.

 

Beyond the crisis, mindboggling science and the arrival of Homo evolutis

Flash Trading Ban

http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSTRE56R5OA20090728
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq Stock Market supports a ban on so-called "flashes," order types that it and other stock-trading venues send to a select group of traders fractions of a second before revealing them publicly, Senator Charles Schumer said on Tuesday.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/153607-flash-trading-is-here-to-stay

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/business/24trading.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1249402696-UgY5aw4sTY/TBSx0WkH0A&pagewanted=print
"It's become a technological arms race, and what separates winners and losers is how fast they can move," said Joseph M. Mecane of NYSE Euronext, which operates the New York Stock Exchange. "Markets need liquidity, and high-frequency traders provide opportunities for other investors to buy and sell."

Goldman Program Packet Sniffing?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=alXddMij8xxQ

http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-case-of-quant-trading-industrial.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/7/750786/-Incredibly-Shrinking-Liquidity-as-Goldman-Flushed-Quant-Trading

http://blogs.reuters.com/commentaries/2009/07/05/a-goldman-trading-scandal/
Did someone try to steal Goldman Sachs' secret sauce?

While most in the US were celebrating the 4th of July, a Russian immigrant living in New Jersey was being held on federal charges of stealing top-secret computer trading codes from a major New York-based financial institution—that sources say is none other than Goldman Sachs.

The allegations, if true, are big news because the codes the accused man, Sergey Aleynikov, tried to steal is the secret code to unlocking Goldman's automated stocks and commodities trading businesses. Federal authorities allege the computer codes and related-trading files that Aleynikov uploaded to a German-based website help this major "financial institution" generate millions of dollars in profits each year.

Google Search: http://www.google.com/search?q=goldman+sachs+packet+sniffing&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe= Goldman Sachs Packet Sniffing

Morgan Stanley hires Citi’s Sopp for FX trading

Singapore: Morgan Stanley has hired Stuart Sopp from Citigroup as its Asia head of G-10 spot currency and forward trading, sources close to the matter said.

Sopp, who was previously Citigroup's Singapore-based head of G-10 spot FX trading, would move to Hong Kong to start his new job at Morgan Stanley, sources said.

The hiring is a sign of Morgan Stanley's focus on forex and flow business, one of the sources said, as investor appetite grows for plain vanilla products after a market meltdown last year saw demand wane for riskier derivatives and hedge funds.

Bank of America, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley said last month they would join a group of banks supporting a joint venture between foreign exchange settlement provider CLS Group and interdealer broker ICAP plc to reduce risks in processing.

Morgan Stanley is looking to hire sales and trading professionals in all major trading centres across the world, the source said.

Morgan Stanley, which became a bank holding company last year, repaid $10 billion from the government's troubled asset relief program in the last quarter when it posted a third straight quarterly loss.

For Citi, Sopp's departure comes less than a year after he joined the US bank from Deutsche Bank.

A Citigroup spokesman confirmed Sopp's departure. Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the move.

Citi, which vowed to remain focused on Asia, has struggled to retain high-profile executives in the past few months. The bank, one of the worst hit by the financial crisis, has taken $45 billion in bailouts from the US government.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which was bailed out by the British government, lost Ivan Ferraroni, its head of forex sales and trading in Tokyo, to Barclays, according to Barclays on Tuesday.

It comes a few months after RBS lost David Dredge, deputy global head of local markets at RBS and a key risk trader, to Artradis Fund Management, Singapore's largest hedge fund manager.

http://www.livemint.com/2009/07/28135425/Morgan-Stanley-hires-Citi821.html?h=B

EUR/USD Technical Analysis - Short Term Top? Selling Opportunity at Open?

EURUSDanalysis8.1.2009, originally uploaded by eliteeservices.

EUR/USD Technical Analysis August 1st 2009 – EUR/USD short term top - selling opportunity at market open?
EUR/USD could retrace to 1.4190 based on the following factors:
• RSI on hourly above 70
• Intrepidus FX Sell Signal
• EUR/USD is up based on technical break of the hourly channel (see chart 1 below)
• Profit taking on EUR/USD longs
• 1.43 is an established daily high since may (see chart 2)
• Same logic applies on USD/CHF Long
What could cause it to go higher?
• A continued selling off of the USD

Daily EUR/USD with established high near 1.4335

* EUR/USD back and forth price action was not impressive until the better than expected US GDP release was met by a negative equity reaction which sent EUR under 1.41. After digesting the data, which included benchmark revisions, equities took back losses and EUR bounced. The advance accelerated into the 16:00bst month end fix as EUR reached 1.4180. When USD bids nowhere to be found in thin post fixing activity EUR/USD extended to 1.4279 before it ran out of steam.
This is not a recommendation to sell EUR/USD. It means that when the market opens if EUR/USD fails to break through the high, selling could continue to fibo levels and hourly trendline. If EUR/USD breaks the 1.4279 high, expect it to go much higher initially.
There is a lot of fundamental pressure short USD at the moment, so if this is not a short term top, expect the EUR to explode.

Automated Trader updates 8.1.2009

The Q3 issue of Automated Trader is out now, and there's plenty of food for thought.....but first, here's a roundup of this week's news....

Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced the addition of four new electronic options algos to their trading platform, whilst Charles River released news that their Investment Management System is fully integrated with UBS Perimeter algo allowing clients to trade US markets outside of regular hours.

Equinix continued their string of expansion announcements from last week with news that they will open a second data centre in Singapore,
Essex Radez announced the expansion of its feed offering at Equinix NY-4,  AboveNet released plans to expand their dedicated London fibre network,  and Savvis announced that they will host Credit Suisse's Crossfinder trading platform.

CBSX released news that they will use SunGard Assent Liquidity Services for execution and clearing, Baikal continue their use of LSE group firm UnaVista for matching, reconcilliation and data integration, and Standard Chartered have been selected by the Singapore Mercantile Exchange as clearing and settlement bank.

In other news, Senator Charles Schumer fired a warning shot across the bows of the high frequency trading community and threatened legislation with a caution to the SEC to curb traders' flash orders.

On the menu in the Q3 issue of Automated Trader.....

You want alpha with that? And do you want your order well done or scrambled?  We serve up the latest in adaptive routing technology in this issue's cover story.  And don't miss John Howard's interview with the team behind the Danix Master Fund  who've created a healthy low volatility meal consisting of a discretionary main course with a systematic side order.

You wait all year for a round table, and then two come along at once. We've been at the heart of the industry debate on a whole variety of issues this month. First, there's our roundtable debate on latency, in which key industry figures debate not only strategies for managing (and solutions for reducing) the L-challenge, but also the prospect of a latency standard. You wouldn't think you could standardise speed, would you?

If your answer to that question is "No", maybe you should take a look to see what our panel of a dozen industry experts are thinking. Our latency debate is big - more than we could fit into a single issue of the magazine - so we've continued it online, and given you the chance to have your say.  Go to our online debate to find out the panelists views and to add your own - the debate is gathering momentum even as you read this, and if you're not part of it – well, you're not part of it. 

Then there's the big discussion about European equities trading, MiFID and the role of the MTFs. The table wasn't quite round, but the debate – concentration, cost, complexity, competition – was full and frank. That's what you get when you put two exchanges, four MTFs and one exchange/MTF into a small room and invite them to agree on how best to execute in Europe.  Wondering how it's all going to play out? So were we as we buffed up the crystal ball and took a look at where forecasting  might lead us on page 51.  Has the gap between forecasts and reality widened in recent years? And if so, should we adjust our use of forecasts?

David Clayden and our US photographer, Marisa Calin, are on the loose at SIFMA in New York, while Peter Green, CEO of The Kyte Group, discusses an evolution for his firm that might just turn into an evolution for the industry. Are you a big-bank client with a little-bank client profile? Maybe it's time to change.

Enjoy the issue, and see you online.

Jenny Eastham
Managing Editor
Tel: +44-207-183-2208
www.automatedtrader.net