Breakfast Links

Chicago Black Hawks force a game 7.  Down 3-0, with their backs up against it.  They have a chance.  They backed into the NHL playoffs.  Never give up the ship.

NYSE boosts case for consolidation with DB.  Question.  How are they finding all this new cost consolidation now?  Why wasn’t it in the original plan?  Makes me think it’s just interpretation of accounting numbers and not economic ones.  I still bet there are greater cost consolidations between merging firms in the same city than trans-Atlantic.  There are definite strategic issues relating to futures that are positive for a NYX-DB hook up.

It’s good to be big and have connections.  Glencore inside traded commodities to reap huge money.  Bunge and Cargill weren’t far behind.  Bunge was fined this year for bidding up prices on grain contracts pre-market, and then pulling all the bids.  In the pit we used to toss guys for that and fine em.  We have electronic trading, let’s keep it fair.  Unfortunately, the independent trader that doubled as a pit committee person had an economic incentive to keep the market honest.  The electronic trader doesn’t.  They just look to exploit edges before they get caught.  Quote stuffing, all the other stuff that is pulled should be illegal.  The exchanges have a conflicted interest on surveillance.  They want volume that electronic trading brings, but are slow to stop the shenanigans.  On the SEC side, they even regulate imbalances into the system, so we have fragmentation.  Fragmentation begets flash crashes.

Marc Rich was originally behind Glencore. There are those I know in the trading business that think he is one of the scummiest figures of all time in commodities. That’s saying something. You wonder if this had anything to do with the Glencore IPO.

More back room deals.

Politics of energy.

European traders bet UK interest rates will rise.

After QE2, what’s next in the US?  I wouldn’t doubt there is behind the scenes lobbying for QE3.  Not only from the administration, but from Wall Street.  It’s risk free money for them.

China proposes cutting 2/3 of its US debt holdings.

Howard Lindzon sees streets paved in silver and gold.  But he is an immigrant from Canada.

Jerry thinks it might be time to be long the dollar.  I think that the stock market is better off with a stronger dollar.

This series isn’t bad. Hard to believe that they are all deceased now.

I am on Twitter here.

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