>>I have commented before on the mess created with the referendum results...
Well, so have I, and I've spent the last hour going back through my posts to try to find it. (Boy, was that humbling, reading some of my predictions!)
To briefly summarise: there is no question the day after the referendum was a complete cock-up in TXO. However, we in the options community had been pleading with the TSE for almost a decade to either build or buy an electronic order book for options. We still have to manually file pieces of paper in little boxes, and every CXL or CFO means we have to sort through the box, find the order, give it to the trader, and then re-file it. On that day, the problem was exacerbated a 1000-fold. The specialists and order traders were simply overwhelmed. This is not meant by way of excuse, just the reason. I have been told that we could buy an off-the-shelf electronic book for approx. $100K with some further implementation costs. Compare this to the $10MM the exchange is now planning on spending to completely automate derivatives, which is like a doctor ordering decapitation as a cure for dandruff. I can only hope that the rumours I'm hearing about Fleming heading for the door are true and we can forestall this idiocy.
Yesterday was Bell's turn to be belle of the ball--news after the close that AT&T was the one talking to Telus may take some bloom off, but maybe not. Bell's subsequent press release hinted at major changes which may be to investor's liking. Call vol increased, which is counter to natural action when a stock spikes. Usually profit-takers selling out their longs drives vol down, but yesterday we had the unusual action of people buying deep calls opening. Very powerful market sentiment. Hope the action keeps up. (26,25)
Happy trading.
Porter |
