As you aware, PFG filed for liquidation in a U.S. bankruptcy court in Chicago and the U.S. Trustee appointed Ira Bodenstein to act as trustee for PFG and its assets, including customer property. On July 13, the bankruptcy court authorized the trustee to continue to operate PFG's business for a limited time in order to (among other things) prepare and distribute final customer statements, and record transactions related to customer accounts. It likely will take several days for the trustee, working with the remaining PFG employees that he has been authorized by the bankruptcy court to employ, to complete that process. At this time, it is not clear when the trustee will be authorized to release any funds to customers.
In addition, the trustee has established a website www.PFGChapter7.com that contains information about the PFG case. The website was created to assist the trustee in providing information to customers and to receive comments or questions from customers.
Editor's note: Every Sunday, Fortune publishes a story from our magazine archives. With the annual Fortune 500 list ready to be revealed tomorrow, turn this week to our inaugural Fortune 500 list, in July, 1955. General Motors topped the list that year, and writer Duncan Norton-Taylor took an inside look into the lives of America's top executives. What does the boss do with his spare hours--if any? How do vice presidents spend their money, and their time away from the office? Here, some glimpses into the private lives of executives in 1955 who earned more than $50,000.
A global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion (£13tn) hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study.
The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined.
The Price of Offshore Revisited was written by James Henry, a former chief economist at the consultancy McKinsey, for by the Tax Justice Network.
Tax expert and UK government adviser John Whiting said he was sceptical that the amount hidden was so large.
Mr Whiting, director of the Office of Tax Simplification, said: "There clearly are some significant amounts hidden away, but if it really is that size what is being done with it all?"
Mr Henry said his $21tn is actually a conservative figure and the true scale could be $32tn. A trillion is 1,000 billion.
(Thomas Dishaw) Below is a comprehensive list of alternative currency systems from around the world. As the economy continues to be propped up by fiat currency and fake data numbers, more and more people are using alternative ways to buy sell and trade for services. View the complete list here. http://govtslaves.info/list-of-alternative-currency-systems-from-around-the-world/
A Community Currency is often used as synonym for complementary currency, local currency, regional currency, alternative currency, auxiliary currencies, and private currencies. The debate is not easy to solve, since the words have different meanings to different people. All are currencies that have different designs and serve different purposes than our conventional money. They depart from the notion that money is essentially a human invention and instrument to influence the relations between citizens and organizations. A solid theoretical framework legitimizes this idea and in the past hundred years a lot of experimentation and experience was picked up with realizing social goals by the implementation of community currencies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_currency
Cyclos is a project of STRO, a leading organisation on monetary innovations. Cyclos offers a complete on-line payment system with additional modules such as e-commerce and communication tools. The Cyclos platform permits institutions such as local banks and MFI`s to offer banking services that can stimulate local trade and development. Cyclos is also used by manyorganizations and communities to provide community currency services.
With the latest version it is possible to roll out mobile banking services such as SMS banking and apps for smartphones. Cyclos is published under the GPL (open source) license meaning that it can be downloaded for free and used at no cost. Cyclos is currently available in ten languages and new languages are added with each release.
Customers’ claims on Peregrine Financial Group Inc., whose founder is accused by regulators of misappropriating more than $200 million, may fetch less than a quarter of their value in the wake of the firm’s bankruptcy, a trader said.
Quotes of 22 cents on the dollar to 25 cents were given to half a dozen Peregrine customers yesterday who called CRT Capital Group LLC, which buys and sells distressed debt, said Joseph Sarachek, managing director of claims trading. He is being “deluged” by calls today, he said. By comparison, bankrupt MF Global Inc.’s U.S. claims have always sold in the high 70s, he said.
Grid strategies are common alternatives for traders that do not have an opinion on market direction. They are almost exclusively associated with forex trading. I've never seen grid trades in any other context.
The goal of a grid strategy is to outline a ranging or trending bias without committing to the underlying direction. That may sound confusing.
The goal is to only summarize the type of market. Trending conditions prevail in today's market. If a trader did not know the future direction of the price, he might place stop entry orders a certain distance away from the current market. If the market happens to increase 10 pips, then perhaps that triggers a buy stop order on the expectation of a continuation. Another 10 pips later, another buy order triggers, and so on. The goal is to keep stacking orders on one way moves.
Ranging grids work on the opposite assumption. They use a limit entry instead of a stop entry order. The grid assumes that if the price drifts very far, then it's likely to come back to where it started.
Problems with Grid Strategies
Position sizing and money management are always some of the biggest concerns with an expert advisor. Two of the more common approaches that I see in grids are either to use a fixed lot size or to use a Martingale approach.
I see merit in the idea of varying lot sizes at different levels. Martingale, however, takes it way too far. It's a mathematical fact that it will blow up at some point in time. A more reasonable approach is to increase at a very slow rate like 10% as trades become increasingly likely to exit. If a trade is decreasingly likely to exit, the idea of not trading should come to mind. Alternatively, trading smaller sizes is always an option.
The other problem is that grids only work at the moment in time where it's applied. When a ranging grid expert advisor is placed at the top of a range, the grid will correctly anticipate the market conditions but poorly implement the prediction. The top of the range means that the price falls back down into the middle. The grid, however, assumes it was placed in the middle. The grid buys as the price falls into the mid-range on the errant expectation that it will return to the top of the range.
This is precisely what I dislike about grids. They are totally blind to the context of their current placement. They are best used, in my opinion, in the context of slight directional bias but where outright trades may not make sense.
Forex brokers have been going under nearly on a monthly basis, as any forex trader or client can attest for the last few years. The most recent, PFGBest, was also a futures commissions merchant with over 70,000 clients and a reported $500 million in customer funds.
Citigroup Inc. (C), the third-biggest U.S. bank, said it will show trading clients how the lender is managing their funds as regulators probe missing customer cash at MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MFGLQ) and Peregrine Financial Group Inc.
Customers using New York-based Citigroup to buy and sell futures and over-the-counter derivative products can now see how much client funds the bank holds, Christopher Perkins, global head of OTC clearing, said today in a phone interview. Clients can use a Citigroup website to monitor the composition of the funds and where they’re being held, he said.
Citigroup is responding to allegations surrounding MF Global and Peregrine, which filed for bankruptcy after shortfalls in client accounts. This has raised scrutiny of how regulators ensure that banks and brokerages separate and protect customer cash when trading in futures.
“It’s almost impossible for regulators to come up with rules that prevent malfeasance and fraud,” Perkins said. “You can come up with the best rules in the world but if people violate them, you’ve still got a problem. The best way to mitigate these kinds of threats to client money would be through enhanced transparency.”
Elite E Services, Inc. (EES) announces a publishing
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Seeking Alpha is the premier website for actionable stock market opinion and analysis, and vibrant, intelligent finance discussion. We handpick articles from the world's top market blogs, money managers, financial experts and investment newsletters - publishing approximately 250 articles daily. Seeking Alpha gives a voice to over 5,000 contributors, providing access to the nation's most savvy and inquisitive investors. Our site is the only free, online source for over 1,500 public companies' quarterly earnings call transcripts, including the S&P 500. Seeking Alpha was named the Most Informative Website by Kiplinger's Magazine and has received Forbes' 'Best of the Web' Award.
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NFA takes emergency enforcement action against Chicago futures firms Peregrine Financial Group, Inc. and Peregrine Asset Management, Inc.
July 9, Chicago - National Futures Association (NFA) announced today that it has taken an emergency enforcement action againstPeregrine Financial Group, Inc. (PFG), an NFA Member futures commission merchant (FCM) and Peregrine Asset Management, Inc. (PAM), an NFA Member commodity trading advisor (CTA) and commodity pool operator (CPO) located in Chicago, Illinois.
NFA has taken the Member Responsibility Action (MRA) to protect customers because PFG has failed to demonstrate that it meets capital requirements and segregated funds requirements. NFA also has reason to believe that PFG does not have sufficient assets to meet its obligations to its customers.
Effective immediately, PFG and PAM are prohibited from soliciting or accepting any additional customer accounts or customer funds, except as margin for existing positions. Additionally, PFG and PAM are prohibited from accepting or placing trades for any customer accounts except for the liquidation of existing customer positions and are prohibited from distributing, disbursing or transferring any funds, including to existing customers, without the prior approval of NFA.
PFG and PAM may request a hearing on this matter before NFA's Hearing Committee.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and BlackRock Inc. (BLK) closed European money market fundsto new investments after the European Central Bank lowered deposit rates to zero.
JPMorgan, the world’s biggest provider of money-market funds, won’t accept new cash in five euro-denominated money-market and liquidity funds because the rate cut may result in losses for investors, the company said in a notice to shareholders. Goldman Sachs won’t accept new money in its GS Euro Government Liquid Reserves Fund, and BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is restricting deposits in two European funds.
“The European market environment is in unchartered territory with such historically low -- or even negative --yields for high-quality issuance,” Goldman Sachs (GS) said in a memo to fund shareholders, citing the ECB’s rate cut. “It is not currently feasible for our portfolio managers to deploy capital without substantially diluting the yield for the existing base of shareholders.”
The ECB yesterday reduced its benchmark rate to a record low of 0.75 percent and took its deposit rate to zero. Money funds have been struggling to invest client assets at a profit as interest rates globally are near record lows and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has reduced the supply of available debt. Managers have been forced to cut fees to keep customer returns above zero, and some have abandoned the business.
All three firms said the restrictions are temporary and they will monitor market conditions. Investor redemptions from the funds are not being limited.
The European Central Bank cut rates by a quarter point, as expected, and the Bank of England moved forward with more quantitative easing. In a surprise move, the People's Bank of China joined in Thursday, moving forward with surprise rate cuts at about the same time as the Bank of England news.
The euro sank to a one-month low as Spanish and Italian bonds plunged, while stocks retreated, after the European Central Bank disappointed investors anticipating a more aggressive effort to fight the debt crisis.
(Reuters) - Stocks fell on Thursday after the biggest three-day rally of the year and the euro and commodities slid too as investors awaited clues on Federal Reserve stimulus and a jobs report likely to show Europe's crisis weighing on the U.S. economy.
A slowdown in the U.S. service sector to a 2-1/2-year low in June was in line with investor fears the euro zone debt crisis was sapping global growth. The data encouraged traders to take profits from a strong equity market rally that began last Friday and extended into the first two sessions of this week.
