TCA closed down at SCHNEIDER. plus at least another 2 within SCHNEIDER. there was other boutique operations as well at other places. not sure the names but the options market making house was one that went belly up as well on the sterling move this year. there has been significant contraction across the board. as i said the main problem is access to margin. not that operations are not profitable just need to be continually liquid.
I have had my biggest year ever in fixed income. And I have been at since 1995. Granted, I had to cut back size in the last year when VOL became insane. But for a momentum trader taking out 7 ticks or so in the ZN ---great market. I have been asking around about the block order entry for US fixed income. I have been wanting to see that screen. You would think they would allow anyone with a seat lease or say TT to pull it up.
What's got to be more important imo is the open interest and how that stacks up... that's what the markets are actually for remember... if we're locals we should be making money from paper basically proportional to open interest... anyone know any way that I can easily get an idea of how open interest has been historically in terms of its rate of change and the like e.g. old liffe end of day sheets.
Interesting article with relevance to thread. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e88bac36-db84-11dd-be53-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 NB: If you cant read it just clear your FT cookies as it counts the number of reads of the site in a month and limits views. Excerpt: "Trading volumes at two of the worldâs largest financial futures exchanges took a hit at the end of last year as a seasonal slowdown and the economic crisis caused a pullback in activity, highlighting the end of multiple years of record-breaking runs. Figures released on Monday, showed that December volumes at US-based CME Group fell by 22 per cent, while they were marginally lower at rival Eurex, the futures arm of Deutsche Borse. Among the worst-hit contracts at CME were interest rate contracts, which fell by 49 per cent"
Is it possible to post the whole article? I've cleared the cookies but need to be registered which I am not. Thanks in Advance
Seasonal slump hits futures exchanges By Jeremy Grant in London Published: January 6 2009 04:14 | Last updated: January 6 2009 04:14 Trading volumes at two of the worldâs largest financial futures exchanges took a hit at the end of last year as a seasonal slowdown and the economic crisis caused a pullback in activity, highlighting the end of multiple years of record-breaking runs. Figures released on Monday, showed that December volumes at US-based CME Group fell by 22 per cent, while they were marginally lower at rival Eurex, the futures arm of Deutsche Borse. Among the worst-hit contracts at CME were interest rate contracts, which fell by 49 per cent. Shares in Intercontinental-Exchange (ICE), a CME rival, fell by more than 7 per cent after the exchange reported a 4.6 per cent fall in commissions from its over-the-counter energy products for the month. However, energy and commodity futures helped ICE to a 36 per cent rise in overall December volumes, boosted by a 21 per cent rise in volume at ICE Europe, its London based energy futures exchange. Commodities also helped December trading volumes at the London Metal Exchange, which reported a 28 per cent rise in the number of contracts traded. Aluminium futures, the LMEâs largest contract, saw a 20 per cent rise in volume, while copper futures were up by 24 per cent year-on-year. Investors are watching to see how deep the impact of the financial crisis will be on exchanges. Derivatives exchanges started to see volumes fall in November amid deleveraging by hedge funds, among the largest users of on-exchange derivatives. Stock exchanges are suffering worse. Deutsche Börse, reporting figures for all seven of Germanyâs stock exchanges, said the value of trades done had fallen by 27 per cent in December. On Xetra, Deutsche Börseâs own electronic trading platform, the number of trades done rose sharply by 29 in December compared with the previous year as algorithmic trading continued to reduce the size of trades. But value traded fell by 34 per cent. In spite of the gloomy figures at CME and Eurex, there were signs that futures exchanges managed to earn more per contract traded â the so-called rate per contract â offering a glimmer of hope that falling volumes may not damage their businesses as much as feared. Howard Chen, analyst at Credit Suisse, said: âRevenue capture trends improved more than we had expected [on CME] and should offer some offset to lower activity levels.â ICE said that the rolling three month average rate per contract on two of its product lines â energy and agricultural futures â was up, while the rate was down in ICEâs US financial futures contracts â primarily the Russell Index. Jeffrey Sprecher, ICE chief executive, said: âAmid a year of recession and global market downturns, ICE accomplished its aggressive strategic objectives.â Separately on Monday, the exchange said it would launch clearing in London of over-the-counter agricultural swaps on its ICE Clear clearing house on January 30. Rival Liffe, the futures arm of NYSE Euronext, has said it plans to start clearing OTC coffee, sugar and cocoa contracts in the first quarter. Both CME and ICE are competing to offer clearing of OTC credit default swaps contracts in the US. ................................................. Expansion first Deutsche Börse was on Monday night poised to acquire Neonet, one of Scandinaviaâs largest brokers, in what is believed to be the first move by an exchange in Europe to expand into the broking business. The move highlights how the lines between exchanges, brokers and alterative trading platforms is being blurred by the competitive forces unleashed by Mifid, the Brussels directive enacted a year ago. Mifid has prompted fragmentation of liquidity across Europe, with shares in the same company available on multiple platforms. Exchanges and alternative platforms are battling to keep and grow a share of that liquidity and are finding increasingly creative ways of linking to different liquidity pools. By acquiring Neonet, Deutsche Börse would be able to on-route orders that can not be filled on its Xetra platform to others across Europe. Last month Neonet, based in Sweden, started offering its clients access to NYSE Euronextâs planned new alternative trading platform, known as NYSE Arca Europe, which will compete with incumbent alternative platforms such as ChiX, Turquoise and BATS Europe. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
I am only getting partial fills on the bund trading 10 cars... This is a shite state of affairs. Anyone saying that they can drop 100 in and watch it get swallowed are talking shit.
Yeah, working orders can be impossible I just plow in there and pay up a little. If you pick your spots are willing to pay the bid/offer ----you can get them. When you go to get out. Have your orders piecemeal around even numbers and you can get most of them. This is all assuming you are right on direction.