Microsoft spends $100 Million to advertise Bing, a lot of it with Google

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/ads-for-new-microsoft-bing-search-engineon-google-search/

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/bing/default.mspx

Classification and Identification for FX Systems and Indicators

EES is developing a system of Classification and Identification for trading systems, indicators, and related files. The system will be based on existing international standards, modified for appropriate trading applications.

During recent market analysis, some words and descriptive terms are lacking to describe certain market events. EES will use existing scientific standards as a template to name our own systems and develop a trading nomenclature.

For example, we are developing an indicator that will determine market "velocity" which is the 'speed' of the pair divided by the time.

Another example, how does a trader measure the amount a pair may fluctuate in a range? It would calculate the amount of times the price crosses a line, or multiple lines, inside a trading range.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centimetre_gram_second_system_of_units

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_protocol

To participate in this development, see the thread in eesfx.com:

http://eesfx.com/eesfx/index.php/forum/14-fx-systems/11-classification-and-identification.html

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