Vive La France

I've managed to get all of the MATIF (Paris Bourse) hand signals recently and once the rare confluence of free time, motivation and sobriety all fall in line for me I'll post them up.  The funniest which highlights the cultural differences between France and the rest of the world for example is the signal for Goldman Sachs which elsewhere is indicated by the thumb pointing to the where a wedding band is worn on the ring finger.  On the MATIF floor, Goldman Sachs in indicated by two musical things, either mimicing playing a saxophone (Sachs sounds similar to sax) or playing a guitar as the second best selling musician in France is Jean-Jacques Goldman.

High school trading

PND Trading Project from charlie roy on Vimeo.

A former CBOT guy and current principal of a high school in Peoria was kind enough to share the above clip of a mock trading program his school developed to teach students the role of futures, hedging and the markets.  As Peoria is in the heart of the grain belt, it's a wonderful way for students to get practical experience in something so important.  As with all education, the most important thing is for the students to want to learn and he found a  way to do exactly that!

 From watching the video, I thought the kids did a great job and seemed a lot more comfortable doing mock trading compared to adults.  One funny thing I remember from watching some mock trading sessions at KCBT and CME is that they usually mix in professionals amongst the amateurs and often the amateurs will offer below or bid above the market so the pros do a quick arb to put things back in line. 

A Kid From The Windy City

One recent book that was published locally is A Kid From The Windy City by Lee Stern who is the longest serving member of the Chicago Board of Trade at over 60 years.  The book focuses a lot on his personal life experiences growing up and at the CBOT along with ownership in a couple sports franchises, the Chicago Sting of the NASL and the Chicago White Sox.  It's a very easy read and a good retrospective of a man from the CBOT who has succeeded in many endeavors. 

Handsignals of the New York Trading Pits

 The newest edition to the tradingpithistory print series is "Hand Signals of the New York Trading Pits" by Mike Nudelman and will be printed up soon in Chicago by Dan Grzeca.  All the handsignals were based upon those used at the NYMEX and was developed w/the assistance of an options trader who is currently on the trading floor.  It will be listed in the shop soon for preorders although printing will be a little bit into the future. 

 

My Word Is My Bond

My Word Is My Bond was published over a couple years ago and presents an oral history of 21 participants at the CBOT.  It's a unique piece of reading which covers much of the history and development of the exchange through the perspective of various participants.  I was disappointed that almost all of those interviewed had links to brokerages or the exchange bureaucracy rather than what I consider to be the apex of the trading industry which is the independent speculator (local) whose earnings are solely reliant upon their trading rather than customer fees.  The book was published w/the cooperation of the CBOT so nothing too outrageous is discussed.

A DVD was also created alongside the book and the opening scenes is linked below:

NYMEX light sweet crude opening trading day

Here is a piece of memorabilia from the opening day of NYMEX's light sweet crude oil futures which is the most successful energy contract that's ever been listed.  On March 30, 1983 trading began and it seems that NYC Mayor Ed Koch rang the opening bell and in the second photo he autographed the program.

Drexel Burnham Lambert order ticket

 

Above is an order ticket from Drexel Burnham Lambert which came from one of their fixed income futures desks at the CBOT in the 1980s.  For dramatic effect, I took the scan and went into Paint to illustrate on what it'd look like once marked up.  In my example it's an order to buy 200 USZ (December 30year bonds) at a price of 99 31/32.  The executing broker is OPP and the counterparty is ABC who was filling the order for house 350 (Goldman) at 7:30am.  Above the order is a timestamp which always had to be done as an order went in.  Not bad, eh???  There is the top copy and then three duplicate carbon copies in back.