To All:
Very interesting action on BCE in the last 5 minutes of trading on friday. The stock was driven down from 56 to 55.10, in very thin trading, by Midland (no. 39) to close near the 55 strike price. What surprised me is that when I checked for the open interest on the March BCE 55 calls, I found the OI was zero. Very strange. Perhaps there is a large OTC position which we know nothing about. Any comments Porter?
For those who follow my NTL leading indicator, a short signal was given on friday. NTL closed down 80 cents in a very strong market. I took note of this and closed out all longs except MLT which appears quite strong.
Roland Fleming caused some waves on the floor with two news reports published friday morning in the Globe & Mail. The first story quoted Mr. Fleming as saying that the small investor should keep quiet at annual meetings. I hope the press misquoted him because this violates all shareholders rights. I have spoken at a number of annual meetings and have always found that my comments and criticisms were welcome by management. Any board that ignores meaningful suggestions from small shareholders should be removed.
The banks now obviously control the TSE and the head of the TSE now appears ready to sacrifice shareholders rights to keep his job, which apparently is in trouble.
The second G & M story was about the CATS crash which occurred on thursday at 3:30PM. Computer crashes and slowdowns are becoming frequent and is a great cause of concern for the traders.
I got trapped in positions twice this month, which cost me a bit of money, because of the inability to trade. We option traders frequently put on option positions and then quickly put on opposing equity positions to hedge. If these maneuvers occur during crashes we are highly exposed. Such was my case on thursday and it cost me. As a consolation the TSE gave all the traders free donuts on friday morning! Thanks Mr. Fleming! I need a few more dozen to cover my shortfall. To say I'm nervous to trade size on the TSE is an understatement. There is enough risk in trading alone without the additional risk of crashes.
Anyway in the G & M article Mr. Fleming blamed the current computer problems on the traders for holding up the automation early in the 1990's! I think the traders who fought automation should be recognized as correct in their struggle, not blamed. Is this the sign of despair Mr. Fleming - blaming the messenger of bad news?
Those of you who read my Canadian option comments know I've held back on my comments about TSE management knowing things would evolve as they do in system applications. Failures are gradually recognized and projects abandoned. This is the norm in systems development projects. I've gone through this a number of times. But management who fails to recognize and understand this should be replaced.
The systems committee of the TSE should be taking charge of this situation and be open to management who obviously doesn't have any background in this area. A really big mistake was made last year when the only member of the systems committee who had a technical background (and a former employee of the TSE) was removed because he spoke up about the mistakes that were being made. Bring him back as VP Systems.
Mr. Fleming, when the situation at the TSE starts to affect my trading personally, and cost me money, I think I have a right to speak up.
Dave Simmons |
