Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fredman who wrote (35680)	1/22/1999 11:07:00 PM
From: dealmakr	Respond to of 95453

Fred, A lot of cherries out there, but in trading I just look for over bot or oversold conditions, support and resistance levels and the price of crude. When the big boyz want to get in the sector in a hurry they buy the bigger caps, when they want out those issues tend to come under the most pressure. For checking the fundamentals, I like those companies with a stronger balance sheet that can weather the storm better. I also look for the leaders in their field and see how they are moving, plays can also be made on other stocks in the same area if lagging. I don't play from the short side at these pricing levels. Another good learning area is to visit the company websites of the stocks that you are interested in, just got my info pak today from RIG that I asked for online. A lot of information can be gleaned from these sites and also the SEC documents filed. Cherries are all about current and future valuation and your investors perspective as compared to the Street. You got to watch where the big money goes and remember the Dog's mantra about the price of oil. Good Trading Dave

To: Fredman who wrote (35680)	1/23/1999 8:35:00 AM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 95453

Financial Times, January 22: IPE and Nymex to step up talks Plans to merge the London and New York energy markets are gathering pace with a meeting next week, writes Paul Solman Next week's meeting of the International Petroleum Exchange board is the latest step in the plan to merge the London energy market with its counterpart in New York. The IPE says it will keep its position confidential while it negotiates with the New York Mercantile Exchange, but the board meeting is intended to finalise the London exchange's response to the Nymex proposal, which was announced last November. Both sides acknowledge there is much to iron out, including regulatory and membership issues and the practicalities of operating a transatlantic exchange. But they expect talks to press ahead promptly. The IPE has also been carrying out consultations with its members and exchange users, such as oil companies. "There is no definite timetable but we don't expect it to be a long, drawn-out process," Lynton Jones, chief executive of the IPE, said yesterday. The merger would see the world's two benchmark crude oil futures contracts at one exchange, although both sides say the IPE's Brent crude and Nymex's West Texas Intermediate crude contracts could co-exist, as they represent different aspects of the oil market. Both contracts have tracked each other's movements in recent years, and both have shown similar changes as they have been battered to 12-year lows by the Asian crisis and oversupply. "Price movements show the two contracts move in correlation and there is a good deal of arbitrage," said Mr Jones. The larger of the two contracts is Nymex crude, which recorded average daily volumes of just under 121,500 last year, 47 per cent of the exchange's total volumes. Brent crude is even more important to the IPE, accounting for 70 per cent of the volume traded last year and averaging about 54,000 of the 77,000 lots traded each day. A driving force behind the tie-up is a trend of strategic alliances and consolidation among the world's futures and options exchanges. Eurex, which last year overtook the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe) as Europe's largest derivatives exchange, was created by the merger of the Deutsche Terminbörse (DTB) of Germany and Soffex of Switzerland. More recently, the Frankfurt-based Eurex exchange has been in discussions with the Chicago Board of Trade, the world's largest commodities exchange, about forming a transatlantic alliance, though that plan has been delayed until March 2000 Matif, the Paris derivatives market, has held talks with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to form an alliance that could also include the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (Simex). In fact, Nymex had already been through its own merger, when in 1994 it hooked up with Comex, the metals exchange. The foundation of such alliances has created the opportunity to cut costs and make the markets more attractive to customers. One trend has been towards replacing pit-based, open-outcry trading with cheaper, electronic systems. Liffe's decision last year to abandon pit-based trading was forced upon it by competition from the Eurex screen-based system. Both the IPE and Nymex retain pit-based trading, although since 1997 they been upgrading their electronic systems - ETS in London and Access in New York - to create a compatible electronic platform. "This year we will soon both have an identical system, though ours will be called ETS II while theirs will be Access 2000," Mr Jones said. In addition, the IPE already trades its natural gas futures on-screen and is moving to trade Brent crude and gas oil futures electronically out of hours. Savings can also be made through common clearing. "Clearly an alliance involves reducing costs of things such as clearing. But common clearing is a big issue and might not be something that we would move to immediately," said Mr Jones. Meanwhile, both the IPE and Nymex say they have been in discussions with their respective regulators, the Financial Services Authority in the UK and the CFTC in the US. Mr Jones pointed out that there is a precedent for a cross-border exchange in the form of OM Group, the Swedish group that owns the Stockholm Stock Exchange and the OM London derivatives exchange. http://1357902468:1357902468@www.ft.com/hippocampus/q10ed3a.htm