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For the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I would ask Jamie every day, "What are you thankful for today?" His responses were mostly silly but sometimes sweet, reminding me of something I'm thankful for every day – someone who can always make me smile.
During a time when I'm working so hard to try to make certain dreams come true – such as my bakery business – it's easy to get caught up in my hopes of the things I wish I had, but there are so many other things to be thankful for already. I have a job that pays my bills, with enough room for extras. I have wonderful friends. I have people who love me. I have my health and my mind. I have Jamie. I have our future together to look forward to…
We did save the wishbone from the turkey and wish to win the lottery tonight, when it climbed to over $500 million. It snapped into 3 or 4 pieces, though, with the bone fragments scattering around the kitchen, but with both of us wishing for the same thing, surely that would ensure we'd win anyway, right? Silly little wishbone. It reminds me of the episode of Friends when they all bought tickets together and wished on a wishbone to win the lottery, but they dropped their tickets out the window and ended up winning just $6 with one of the ones they picked up. And as it turned out, Joey gave up his lottery wish for a wish that Chandler would get the job he wanted. I sure miss Friends!
With my parents just having moved back to the East coast, and not enough vacation days accrued (on my part) to travel to visit our families, we stayed in town, and spent the day with a few friends. And since my friend's dad who was at their house visiting is on a gluten-free diet, I challenged myself to make only gluten-free food that he would be able to eat, too.
First I made Cranberry Orange Compote, naturally gluten-free, so that wasn't a problem. I love this compote – the tart whole berries with a hint of orange and spices are so much better than the canned, jellied sauce that I grew up eating.
My next dish was the Sweet Potato Casserole with Brown Sugar Pecan Streusel – I commissioned Jamie to make this since I was busy making pies, and everyone raved about how good it was. This was a simple adjustment, since the only gluten is in the flour for the streusel topping, and it's not crucial to the structure of the dish, so a basic swap with a gluten-free flour blend was easy and tasted just as good.
The real challenge was going to be the pies, though. I wanted to make a tart, with an almond crust filled with chocolate pastry cream, sprinkled with a little sea salt and sliced almonds, and garnished with whipped cream. For my other pie, I had in mind a mixed berry Holiday Pie with cranberries, cherries and blueberries.
For the tart crust, I used just almond meal, swapping it out for the all-purpose flour in my favorite shortbread tart crust recipe. It wasn't an easy swap, though, since the almond meal contained more moisture, and I had to add quite a bit more, and it still ended up pretty sticky and impossible to roll out and transfer in one piece to the pan, so I pressed the scraps into the pan instead. It even stuck to the parchment paper I rolled it out on, something I didn't even think was possible!
I made a silky and creamy dark chocolate pastry cream, which was naturally gluten-free since it contained corn starch but no flour. Other than the difficulty of the stickiness of the dough, it also seemed to want to stay stuck to the pan when I tried to take off the removable sides after baking. After trying, unsuccessfully, I wiggled a knife down the sides of the pan and managed to get the tart out without breaking it to pieces. I was pretty happy with the result, especially since it was my first attempt at making a gluten-free crust of any kind. And according to everyone at the party, it tasted amazing! Now, I will admit, that personally I prefer my shortbread tart crust made with flour, or a few finely chopped nuts with the flour for an almond or pecan shortbread, but for a gluten-free option, it was pretty good.
My next project was the gluten-free pie crust for the pie. I hoped to find a gluten-free pie crust mix of some kind, but after ending up at Whole Foods, which I figured had the best selection, and not finding anything, I settled for an all-purpose blend of tapioca, potato and bean flours/starches. I've read articles on gluten-free baking, but really didn't have the time (or room) to buy 5 or 6 different flours, plus xanthan gum, to make my own perfect blend. If I did more of this in the future, though, then it would be interesting to experiment.
I substituted the gluten-free flour equally for the flour in my all-butter pie crust recipe, adding an egg yolk to help it bind, but my problem here was just that the dough was very crumbly and absolutely refused to stick together. Here again, I ended up pressing the dough into the pan, sealing up all the little scraps. My pie crust leaves on top turned out very pretty, though. In spite of the trouble with getting the crust into the pan, it baked very nicely, and the filling had a wonderful slightly tart, slightly sweet flavor from the combination of berries and spices. I did miss the flakiness that my pie crust usually has, and the gluten-free version was more crumbly than flaky, but was still good.
Besides the pies I brought to the party, I also baked an Apple Pie for another friend, and made that one with my own little twist on a lattice top. Instead of overlapping long strips of dough, I cut the dough into squares, and then just arranged all the squares on top, with a few leaves here and there. I thought the result was striking, and definitely original!
All in all, I'd say my gluten-free experience was a success, and it taught me a little lesson in the science involved in baking. To this day, I've taken the binding properties of gluten completely for granted, but now I know better.
I haven't quite satisfied my pie-baking urges for the season, though, so hopefully I'll be able to share a few more recipes before Christmas…
Chocolate Cream Almond Tart
printable recipe
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup powdered or confectioner's sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 egg yolk, beaten
- 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
- Tart pan, with a removable bottom
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, powdered sugar and salt. Scatter the cold butter pieces over the flour, and using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until you have coarse crumbs (about 1-2 minutes). Add the egg yolk, a little at a time, stirring into the flour and butter with your fingers. Working quickly, work the dough with your fingers to incorporate the moisture into the flour. (The dough will appear very dry, and you might think it doesn't have enough liquid, but don't worry, it will come together.) After 2-3 minutes of working the dough, it should start to hold together enough so that you can gather it into a ball. During the last minute of working the dough, sprinkle in the almonds.
Grease your tart pan very thoroughly with butter or cooking spray. Take half the dough and press evenly into the bottom of the tart pan, all the way to the edges. Take the other half of the dough, and press evenly around the sides of the pan. Freeze crust in pan for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a piece of foil, and press the foil, greased side down, against the bottom and sides of the crust. Fill the foil with dry beans or pie weights. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes until browned. Cool completely.
Cook's Note: For a gluten free option, substitute finely ground almond meal for the flour, or a combination of almond meal and a gluten free flour blend.
Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a piece of foil, and press the foil, greased side down, against the bottom and sides of the crust. Fill the foil with dry beans or pie weights. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes until browned. Cool completely.
Cook's Note: For a gluten free option, substitute finely ground almond meal for the flour, or a combination of almond meal and a gluten free flour blend.
Chocolate Pastry Cream:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 6 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- Sliced almonds
- Coarse sea salt
Whisk in chocolate and butter, a little at a time until melted, and the vanilla. Pour the pastry cream through a fine mesh strainer to remove any bits of cooked egg. Cover with plastic, resting the plastic directly against the cream, and cool in the refrigerator for two hours. Uncover, whisk the cream and spread into the cooled crust. Chill for several more hours.
To garnish, whip the whipping cream and powdered sugar until as stiff as you like; pipe or spread onto the tart. Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt and the sliced almonds.
Recipe from Curly Girl Kitchen
Holiday Berry Pie
printable recipe
- 2 prepared pie crusts (my recipe for All Butter Perfect Pie Crust)
- 12 ounces cranberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)
- 12 ounces blueberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)
- 12 ounces pitted sweet black cherries, fresh or frozen (thawed)
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- zest of 1 orange
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon flour, plus extra for rolling
- 1 egg, plus 1 teaspoon water
- coarse Turbinado sugar
- decorative pie crust cutters
Prepare the pie dough and refrigerate until ready to use, taking it out of the fridge about 10-15 minutes before you need to roll it out.
In a large sauce pan, combine the cranberries, blueberries, cherries, brown sugar, corn starch, orange juice, orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Simmer over medium low heat until juicy, stirring occasionally. Raise heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring constantly; once it boils, boil for 1-2 minutes until thick enough to coat a spoon. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Set aside to cool for 30 minutes to an hour, or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with foil. Roll out one disk of pie dough so that it can fit into a deep-dish pie pan with one inch overhang. Sprinkle the bottom of the dough with a tablespoon of flour (to prevent a soggy crust). Spoon the warm filling into the dough. If desired, dot the filling with a few tablespoons of diced butter. Trim the edges of the dough with a knife and crimp the edge with your fingers.
Roll out the other disk of dough to 1/4 inch thick. Using a decorative pie crust cutter (or small cookie cutter), cut shapes and place all over the top of the fruit filling, leaving some gaps so that steam can escape. Beat the egg and water together with a fork, then use a pastry brush to brush the egg wash over the dough cutouts and the edge (to help it brown). Sprinkle the dough with a little coarse Turbinado sugar, so it sparkles.
Place the pie pan on the foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 50-60 minutes, until the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown. Halfway through baking, check the crust and cover with foil, if needed, to prevent overbrowning. Cool pie on a wire rack at room temperature for at least 5-6 hours, or overnight, before cutting, to ensure filling is completely set.
Recipe from Curly Girl Kitchen


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Risk management: Real and Virtual: High frequency trading, speculation, futures, hedging
June 19, 2011
There is a high degree of uncertainty in predicting future commodity prices that baffles those engaged in monetary policies, academics, economists, and the everyday consumer.
High frequency trading (see Direct Edge 2005-) using proprietary algorithmic trading programs accounted for over 25% of all shares traded by the buy side by 2009. In 2009 73% of US equity trading volume was attributed to the activities of a small number of high-frequency trading firms, including divisions of Goldman Sachs and UBS but many more obscure, startup firms (with only 12-100 employees) such as Archelon, EWT Trading, Getco and Peak6 (Heires, Katherine. 2009-07-20Code Green: Goldman Sachs & UBS Cases Heighten Need to Keep Valuable Digital Assets From Walking Out The Door. Millions in Trading Profits May Depend On It Securities Industry News). The entire event/analysis/action cycle has been reduced for traders with the fastest machines to a few milliseconds. Fast computing not rational decision-making counts. Arnuk and Saluzzi (2009) call these activities toxic trade and claim that the high frequency trader seize the best deals at the expense of real investors whose machines are not as fast.
NYSE specialists no longer provide price stability. With the advent NYSE Hybrid, specialist market share has dropped from 80% to 25%.
There is a saturation of equity quotes with the entire event/analysis/action cycle has been reduced for some traders to a few milliseconds.
CQS Capacity (Quotes per Second) capacity was increased was increased by 33% to 1 million quotes/second on July 4, 2010 and on July 5th there was a micro-burst of activity. July 5th was 33% more active than any trading day in history.] CQS is already planning to increase capacity an additional 25% in October 2011. How long before that limit is hit ? We think it will be hit the very next trading day. If 3 years ago someone told us that equity quote traffic rates for NYSE, AMEX and ARCA issues would exceed 1 Million/second (not even counting Nasdaq stocks), we would have thought the market would have entered the greatest bull or bear market ever known. Instead, you can't even recognize from a 1 minute chart where these bursts of out-of-control quote traffic rates occur. And when they do occur, a significant percentage of those quotes will have already expired before they even leave the exchange network. At these rates of growth, we will no longer have a diversity of trading participants with accurate market data, and regulators will have no hope of ever piecing together what happened after the next disaster. It took the SEC five months just to assemble equity data to analyse the flash crash [of May 6, 2010]. When the next disaster strikes, they will have to contend with 5 to 10 times more data ("Equity Quote Saturation" Nanex)."
"The market itself creates events in the form of imbalances of supply and demand that could be of value to traders who are fast enough to respond to them. There is no doubt that being faster than others entails private advantage, but is it socially beneficial? The first mover in the case of fundamental news imposes costs on other traders, and high adverse selection costs could cause market failure. The fast traders that take advantage of market events could provide valuable liquidity to those seeking immediacy and hence enhance market quality, but could also step ahead of large orders in the book, thereby imposing costs on other liquidity providers (as described in the specialist context by Seppi (1997)) (Hasbrouck, Joel; Saar, Gideon. "Low-Latency Trading". p. 1. Retrieved 18 July 2011)."
Canadian-born, Harvard-educated economist Dean of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, Roger L. Martin argued in his publication entitled Fixing the Game: How Runaway Expectations Broke the Economy, and How to Get Back to Reality (2011-05) "The mayhem in our capital markets is ultimately the unfortunate effect of tightly tying together two different markets: the real market and the expectations market." In her article printed in The Atlantic Lane Wallace (2009-07-07) admired Martin's use of an easy-to-understand football analogy to explain how flawed economic theories about compensation and investment contributed to the 2008 melt-down on Wall Street. I have been unable to find the original Financial Times article to which Wallace referred but Martin has used the example of the New England Patriots' stellar 16-0 record in their 2007 winning streak in Fixing the Game (2011) and this section is posted on Huffington Post. In it Martin explained how MVP Quarterback Tom Brady, the head coach and the team's superlative 2007 performance was perfect even in measurable "real" terms. He uses Brady's real performance value as an analogy for real stock market values and real embodied customers. He contrasts this with the speculators' expectations market based on the point spread. The Patriots' performance for example was only mediocre because the Patriots covered the point spread only ten times. Martin explained that "In betting vernacular, a favored team covers the spread when it wins the game by more than the point spread. In this case, the point spread is the moral equivalent of the stock price, in that it captures the consensus expectations of all bettors (Huffington Post)." Martin argued that it is impossible to meet bettors' expectations forever and expectations grow to unattainable levels in both football and the stock market. In "American capitalism, CEOs are compensated directly and explicitly on how they perform against the point spread; that is, against expectations (Martin 2011 cited in Huffington Post)." And CEOs increasingly focus on managing share price over the short run something that is easier to manipulate. Shareholders are better off however when the focus of their investment managers is on the long term, on increasing share price more or less forever. In this horse-race spread-covering betting scenario, the interests of shareholders and executives are not aligned.
In 2009 (Stiglitz Commission 2009)." warned that financial speculation exacerbated the mortgage meltdown, the phenomenal increase in the price of energy including oil. As the price of energy increases countries' purchasing power decreased. "The transfer of income from those who suffered from these price increases to those who benefited weakened global aggregate demand and contributed to the global imbalances which played an important role in the crisis (Stiglitz Commission 2009)."
There are those who claim that perceptions not realities create oil prices (Dicker 2011:309). He argued that the illogical outcome of BP disaster (the decrease in the price of oil when the supply was less than demand) is another example of the way in which oil markets and prices are influenced by quick analysis of traders and investors looking to benefit from a well-placed bet not by legitimate changes in fundamental supply.
While gurus such as Bernstein (2000) argue that gambling is for anyone but speculation is for professionals, the chaos and unpredictability of the current global economy have been linked to a growing culture of gambling in futures trading rather than level-headed professionalism. Gamblers create risk simply by placing a bet; professional speculators "transfer risk from the hedgers to the speculators" and it therefore called risk management instead of gambling.
"It rained last night so the price of soy beans will be down today." Although the basis of fundamental analysis in economics is supply and demand, the actual fundamental analysis of specific markets that might generate accurate price predictions are complicated as numbers of factors overlap and massive quantities of data need to be considered. The simple equation involves how much of a commodity or service are buyers willing to pay at a given time and place. There used to be a correlation between price and consumption. Factors that impact on price of commodities include the state of the economy (local, regional, national and international – inflationary, recessionary with rising or falling employment), availability of alternate products or services, storage possibilities, weather, seasonality, price cycles, price trends, government subsidies, political influences, protectionist attitudes, international tensions, fear of war, hoarding, stockpiling, demand for raw materials (sugar, petroleum, copper, platinum, coffee, cocoa), currency fluctuations, health of the economy, level of unemployment, housing starts. Most technical systems are not effective in making traders money.
In examining implications regarding monetary policies the US Federal Reserve Board theoretical analyses often focus on: "commodity prices and inflation, the role of labor costs in the price-setting process, issues arising from the necessity of making policy in real time, and the determinants and effects of changes in inflation expectations (Bernanke 2008-06-09)."
While some argue that "policymakers care only about expected economic outcomes and not the uncertainty surrounding those outcomes" Pesenti and Groen claim that policymakers are concerned about the risks to their projections as well as the projections themselves (Pesenti and Groen 2011-03)?" Should and how does this affect the way in which policies are made?
Selected Timeline of Critical Events
2011-08-09. "In recent days, the high-frequency operation at Tradeworx Inc., a Red Bank, N.J. firm, juggled its largest daily volumes since its 2009 launch, resulting in some of its most profitable days on record, according to its founder, Manoj Narang. The reason: High-speed firms' profits are highly correlated with increased volatility in the market. The more stock are rising and falling, the better they are able to make profits on the difference between buy and sell prices. A gauge of volatility, the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, or VIX, rose more than 100% from Aug. 1 to Aug. 8. (Patterson, Scott. 2011-08-09. "High Frequency Traders Win in Market Bloodbath." Wall Street Journal Blog Marketbeat.)"
2011-08-13 ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: "[T] he issue of what's called high-frequency trading and electronic trading that she just mentioned is absolutely right. The reason why you're seeing these huge gains and huge losses is because there are people who are making these decisions based on the headlines, but then there are computers, there's machines that are effectively taking over and exacerbating the ups and the downs, because what they're looking to do is — these are machines with algorithms that are looking to pick up pennies, lots of pennies in many instances. But they're looking for one stock to go up and one stock to go down, and they see different correlations. And that's really exacerbating the big moves in volatility we're seeing in the stock market these days." CATHERINE MANN: [The] ordinary investor, the person on Main Street is affected by these gyrations. [The ordinary investor] feels a disconnect between the big profits that some Wall Street, the big financials or non-financials companies get by trading on this high frequency and the ups and the downs, and the average person on Main Street. "The disconnect there has been there for a while. It's been worsened because of the lack of credit being extended to Main Street, as — as — even though the banks have gotten better, in better shape, they have not extended any credit to Main Street. And so that disconnect is worse. And they really feel like Wall Street is out to get them. And they're probably right about that ("Uncertainty, Computerized Trading Fuel Wall Street's Wild Ride.")
2011-07-07 Melloy, John. 2011-07-07. "New Way High-Speed Traders Get Edge on Investors." Fast Money. CNBC.com
2011 High-frequency trading firms using high-frequency techniques (software-based mechanisms: high frequency algorithmic trading) earned $12.9 billion in profit in the last two years (2009-2011), according to TABB Group, a specialist on the markets.
2011-07-18 The price of gold climbed to c."$1604 an ounce, putting the precious metal on track for a 10th-straight rise and another record settlement. The U.S. dollar strengthened against the euro but declined versus the yen. Crude-oil prices fell below $95 a barrel (Wall Street Journal)."
2011-07-10 Anderlini, Jamil. "Trade data show China economy slowing." "In a sign that industrial activity in the country was moderating, imports of key commodities like crude oil, aluminium and iron ore all fell in June from a month earlier. Crude oil imports fell to the lowest level in eight months and were down 11.5 per cent from the same month a year earlier and, while copper imports rebounded in June, they were significantly down on 12 months ago."
2011-07-08 U.S. stocks slumped. Crude-oil futures fell 2.9% and traded just below $96 a barrel (Wall Street Journal).
2011-07-04 "Speculators unburned." The Economist. Oil traders are free to bid for it. And it seems they did. The Department for Energy says its auction was heavily oversubscribed with bids from more than 90 parties. For reference, there are 148 refineries in America, but most are owned by a few major players such as Exxon, who would do the actual bidding. Traders who anticipate the oil price will rise, and have the capacity to store oil, can buy physical stocks now, and sell oil forward. As long as the price rises enough to cover storage costs, they will turn a profit. If a trader was able to purchase West Texas Intermediate—the oil held in America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)—at the spot price on June 24th, they would already be sitting on a tidy profit.
2011-07-04 Capacity (Quotes per Second) CQS capacity was increased by 33% to 1 million quotes/second. On July 5th, 2011 there was a micro-burst of activity: 33% more active than any trading day in history (Nanex Research).
2011-06-27 "The London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) has launched a super-fast trading service in its latest bid to court more business from high-frequency trading (HFT) firms." (Jeff, Luke. 2011-06-27. "LSE makes latest high-frequency move." London:Reuters.
2011-06 "A recent report produced by a joint advisory committee of the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission urged the SEC to work with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the exchanges "to develop effective testing of sponsoring broker-dealer risk management controls and supervisory procedures.The concern from Washington prompted a group of 12 brokerages to collaborate on a set of risk guidelines intended for adoption across the industry. Working under the aegis of FIX Protocol Limited, the group recently published a checklist of 13 risk controls it hopes will deter the acceptance of orders that might disrupt the marketplace. FIX Protocol is a pan-industry group that promotes and supports electronic trading through the ubiquitous FIX communications standard. The guidelines devised by the members of the FPL Risk Management Working Group focus strictly on algorithmic and direct-market-access orders for cash equities. The members include the nine largest trading firms, which account for the vast majority of industry orders ("New Checks Unlikely to Satisfy SEC." Traders Magazine)."
2011-06-28 "Futures advanced a second day as Brent crude oil climbed. Gasoline and heating oil rose as crude and equities gained and the dollar weakened against the euro."(Powell 2011-06-28).
2011-06-23 In its commitment to keep oil markets well-supplied the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that the 28 IEA member countries for the third time in the IEA history, they would release 60 million barrels of oil (2 million barrels of oil per day from their emergency stocks over an initial period c. June-July 15) to offset the ongoing disruption of oil supplies from Libya. By May 30 132 mb of Libyan light, sweet crude oil was not available to the market and analysts expect this to continue through 2011. This supply disruption has been underway for some time and its effect has become more pronounced as it has continued. The normal seasonal increase in refiner demand expected for this summer will exacerbate the shortfall further. Greater tightness in the oil market threatens to undermine the fragile global economic recovery (International Energy Agency 2011-06-23).
2011-06-16 Fletcher, Sam. "Energy prices tumble; Brent-WTI spread at 3-month low." PennEnergy- Energy News. West Texas Intermediate to "the weakest level" since March, said Olivier Jakob at Petromatrix, Zug, Switzerland. In Houston, analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc. said the European debt crisis and continued worries of a weakening US economy …
2011-06-15 Britain's top banks will have to protect their retail business from investment banking activities (casino banking) after "the government backed a plan to overhaul the industry and shield taxpayers from future losses (more)." See Financial Times also.
2011 Debates in the UK on how to make our financial institutions safer include ring-fencing utility operations from casino banking, new capital requirements and living wills. Megabanks (Barclays, Lloyds, RBS and Santander) were rescued by taxpayers as well as through worsening savings and loan rates. Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-2004841/SUNDERLAND-ON-SATURDAY-Banks-need-customers-queue.html#ixzz1QbQ38DAGSee Sunderland "The scale of the taxpayer bailout of the banking system has led to lengthening dole queues and severe cuts to public spending (more)."
2011 Megabank Barclays was ordered by the Financial Services Authority to pay a fine of £7m and to repay up to £60m to mainly elderly customers who had been duped into gambling their savings on the stock market. Read more
2011-06-17 In the Alberta oil sands, oil prices tripled from their 2009 lows. Drilling activity was on the upswing. Unemployment was falling and oilsands investment was surging (Read more)
"When you see oil prices spiking by $2, $3 or $5 a day, that's not a situation Alberta wants to be in because it's not driven by (market) fundamentals, it's being driven by speculators".
2011-05-02 through 2011-05-07 The price of silver dropped 25% in just four trading days.
2011-04 Investors pushed the price of silver up 57% in 2011 before a massive correction started on May 2, 2011.
2011-03 In the wake of the U.S. real estate collapse, declining returns in the bond market, worries about a global slowdown and fears that after a nice run, equities have nowhere to go but down, big hedge funds and other sophisticated market pros have been loading up on cotton, corn, soybean oil and other soft commodities. Milner, Brian.
2011-03. "Soaring commodity prices at mercy of demand – from speculators." Globe and Mail.
2011-03 A rally in commodity prices resurrected inflationary threats (Pesenti and Groen 2011-03).
2011-01-12 American International Group, which received a massive bailout in 2008, claimed it expected to complete a recapitalization that would allow it to fully pay back the government (more).
2011-02 Coffee prices: In New York, the benchmark May futures contract hit $2.784 a pound, their highest level since $3.40 in 1977, an all-time record. During the past 12 months alone, those prices rose by 145%. Last week the International Coffee Organisation said the price had hit a 14-year high. By July 2011 "Coffee futures are up 53% over the past year, although the front-month contract for July delivery fell 1.9%, or 4.8 cents, in Friday to close at $2.5255 a pound."
2011-06-01 Investors should prepare for renewed swings in prices of commodities (oil, natural gas, orange juice) "swings expected after weather forecasters predicted a busy Atlantic hurricane season." Blais 2011-06-01 ." Financial Times. London.
2010-12 From 1977-2010 the compound annual sharehold value continues to decrease compared to pre-shareholder-value era (1933-1977) (Martin 2011 cited in Huffington Post)." Companies tend to boost earnings per share without creating value but gross-margin return on inventory investment drives longer term value creation. CEOs need to be held accountable for long-term performance by linking compensation to such metrics as multiyear stock performance. see Lek.
2010-09 Investment banker multimillionaire 59-year-old American Bob Diamond was appointed as head of Barclays megabank raising concerns that the Treasury should separate traditional retail banking from casino banking. Casino banking can lead to potential massive profits or loss depending on the level of risk of investments. Vince Cable: "Diamond, with his £20m bonuses, is the unacceptable face of this bonus-driven banking," Oakeshott said. "This highlights the need to break-up and de-risk the British banking system." Barclays appointment highlights 'casino' banking fears Business secretary says Barclays' appointment of Bob Diamond illustrates dangers of having retail banks with massively profitable investment arms attached to them.
2010—08-16 The CFTC sanctioned ConAgra Trade Group, Inc. (CTG) $12 Million for causing a non-bona fide price to be reported in the NYMEX Crude Oil futures contract. On January 2, 2008, CTG was the first to purchase NYMEX crude oil futures contracts at the then-historic price of $100. As a result of CTG's effort to be the first to trade at the $100 level, CTG caused a non-bona fide price to be reported, according to the CFTC order. (CFTC Press Release 5873-10, August 16, 2010) (more).
2010-07-21 President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory bill. "Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act amends the Commodity Exchange Act to establish a comprehensive new regulatory framework for swaps and security-based swaps. The legislation is enacted to reduce risk, increase transparency, and promote market integrity within the financial system by, among other things: 1) providing for the registration and comprehensive regulation of swap dealers and major swap participants; 2) imposing clearing and trade execution requirements on standardized derivative products; 3) creating robust recordkeeping and real-time reporting regimes; and 4) enhancing the Commission's rulemaking and enforcement authorities with respect to, among others, all registered entities and intermediaries subject to the Commission's oversight. On the same day, the CFTC releases a list of 30 areas of rulemaking to implement the Dodd-Frank Act. (CFTC Press Releases 5855-10 and 5856-10, July 21, 2010) (more). The Dodd-Frank Act included the Volcker Rule which requires that "regulators implement regulations for banks, their affiliates and holding companies, to prohibit proprietary trading, investment in and sponsorship of hedge funds and private equity funds, and to limit relationships with hedge funds and private equity funds. Non-bank financial institutions supervised by the Fed also have restrictions on proprietary trading and hedge fund and private equity investments. The Council will study and make recommendations on implementation to aid regulators (more)."
2010-05-24 A YouTube video of High Frequency Trading explained by William Arnuk, the 13-year-old son of Sal Arnuk, who works for the HFT research firm, Themis Trading.
2010-05 With the flow from BP's Deepwater Horizon huge oil spill unstaunched both stock and oil markets crashed with the brunt of the losses in the energy sector. Oil prices fell. (Dicker 2011:305).
2010—05-06 Major stock indexes and stock index futures experience a "flash crash", a brief but severe drop in prices, falling more than 5% in a matter of minutes, only to recover a short time later. Dow Jones industrials fell roughly 900 points, only to quickly recover. Some individual securities experience more volatility than the stock indexes. (Statement by SEC and CFTC, May 6, 2010). (more) The joint CFTC/SEC report on the "flash crash" of May 6, 2010, examined the role of high-frequency trading in this extreme episode (U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2010). Whether or not a single large order caused the "flash crash" in May 2010, as the Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged that a single large order may have caused the crash and has placed pressure on brokers to make sure they don't toss any oversize or out-of-control orders into the market (Traders Magazine). "The regulators' official October report on the 15-minute plummet in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on May 6, 2010, blamed a liquidity crisis that followed a bad trade in S&P 500 futures. Officials have since taken action to prevent a similar catastrophe by instituting circuit breakers that halt individual stocks in the S&P 500 after a 10 percent move (Melloy 2011-07-07)."
2010—04-06 It took $20 trillion of public funds over a period of two-and-a-half years to lift the total world market capitalization of listed companies by $16.4 trillion. This means some $3.6 trillion, or 17.5%, had been burned up by transmission friction. Government intervention failed to produce a dollar-for-dollar break-even impact on battered markets, let alone generate any multiplier effect, which in normal times could be expected to be between nine and 11 times. In the meantime, with the exception of China's, the real global economy continues to slide downward, with rising unemployment and underemployment. The massive government injection of new money managed to stabilize world equity markets by January 2010, but only at 73.5% of its peak value in October 2007. It still left the credit markets around the world dangerously anemic and the real economy operating on intensive care and life support measures from government. This is because the bailout and stimulus money failed to land on the demand side of the economy, which has been plagued by overcapacity fueled by inadequate workers' income, masked by excessive debt, and by a drastic reversal of the wealtheffect on consumer demand from the bursting of the debt bubble. The bursting of the debt bubble destroyed the wealth it buoyed, but it left the debt that fueled the bubble standing as liability in the economy. Much of the new government money came from adding to the national debt, which taxpayers will have to pay back in future years. This money went to bail out distressed banks and financialinstitutions, which used it to profit from global "carry trade" speculation, as hot money that exploited interest rate arbitrage trades between economies. The toxic debts have remained in the global economy at face value, having only been transformed from private debts to public debts to prevent total collapse of the private sector. The debt bubble has been turned into a dense debt black hole of intense financial gravity the traps all light from appearing at the end of the recovery tunnel.(Lui, Henry C.K. 2010—04-06. "Bailouts, Stimulus Packages and Jobless Recovery: The Crisis of Wealth Destruction. Part I)."
2010-04-20 BP's Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire resulted in oil spill.
2010-03 Michael Lewis published his book entitled The Big Short in which he returned "to his financial roots to excavate the crisis of 2007–2008, employing his trademark technique of casting a microcosmic lens on the personal histories of several Wall Street outsiders who were betting against the grain—to shed light on the macrocosmic tale of greed and fear." "Lewis is a capable guide into the world of CDOs, subprime mortgages, head-in-the-sand investments, inflated egos–and the big short." Lewis provides "a savvy assessment of the wisdom of the financial bailout and where-are-they-now updates on the book's various heroes and villains." (more)
2010—01-14 The "CFTC votes at an open meeting to publish in the Federal Register a proposal to set position limits for futures and option contracts in the major energy markets. (CFTC Press Release 5771-10, January 7, 2010) (more)."
2010-01 Organizations "representing the electric and natural gas industries and serving nearly all energy customers in the United States, support the goals of the Administration and Congress to improve transparency and reduce systemic risk in over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets. As the Senate considers financial reform legislation, [they argued] that it preserve the ability of companies to access critical OTC energy derivatives products and markets. engaged in off-market trading for oil which is unregulated. Estimates for the OTC derivative market for all assets range upward of $600 trillion. See (Edison Electric Institute (EEI). 2010-01. "OTC Derivatives Reform: Energy Sector Impacts.").
2009-12-17 "Automated market makers (AMM) co-locate their servers in the NASDAQ or the NYSE building, right next to the exchanges' servers. AMMs already have faster servers than most institutional and retail investors. But because they are co-located, their servers
can react even faster." "According to Traders Magazine the number of firms that co-locate at NASDAQ has doubled over the last year (Arnuk, Sal L.; Saluzzi, Joseph. 2009-12-17. "Toxic Equity Trading Order Flow on Wall Street: The Real Force Behind the Explosion in Volume and Volatility." A Themis Trading LLC White Paper.)
2009-10-08 "High Frequency Trading Technology: a TABB Anthology." TABB reported that software capable of electronic routing and execution based on algorithms account for more than 25% of all shares traded by the buy side today. A relatively few high frequency proprietary trading firms experienced a meteoric rise and now wield far greater influence on the markets today than most people recognize.
2009-10-30 Market analysts argued that oil markets were no longer tied to supply and demand fundamentals. They were concerned with the extremely high correlation between crude oil prices and US currency ("Flood 2009-10-30).
2009-08-06 Computer-based algorithmic programs carry out transactions in 400 microseconds which is 1000 times faster than the human eye. Few ordinary investors are aware of or have access to this frenetic, technology-driven world of high-frequency trading which accounted for 50% of daily volume in US stocks, up from estimates of 30 per cent in 2005 (Mackenzie, Michael; Grant, Jeremy. 2009-08-06. "The dash to flash." Financial Times.)
2009-07-20. Goldman Sachs and UBS filed charges against former employees they allege stole proprietary computer code key to their high-speed trading programs, now the most tactical and strategic weapons on Wall Street (Heires, Katherine. 2009-07-20Code Green: Goldman Sachs & UBS Cases Heighten Need to Keep Valuable Digital Assets From Walking Out The Door. Millions in Trading Profits May Depend On It Securities Industry News)."
2009-03 UBS filed papers "charging three ex-employees with "misappropriation of trade secrets," specifically the misappropriation of 25,000 lines of source code for the firm's high-speed, algorithmic trading programs (Heires, Katherine. 2009-07-20Code Green: Goldman Sachs & UBS Cases Heighten Need to Keep Valuable Digital Assets From Walking Out The Door. Millions in Trading Profits May Depend On It Securities Industry News)."
2009-07-03. Goldman Sachs brought charges "against a former vice president for equity strategy and computer programmer on July 3 for allegedly copying 32 megabytes of the bank's trading codes and uploading them to an encrypted server before sending them to a home computer and other
devices (Heires, Katherine. 2009-07-20Code Green: Goldman Sachs & UBS Cases Heighten Need to Keep Valuable Digital Assets From Walking Out The Door. Millions in Trading Profits May Depend On It Securities Industry News)."
2009-06 Signs of an approaching global economic recovery re-emerged (Pesenti and Groen 2011-03).
2009-06-28 Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose. "China's banks are an accident waiting to happen to every one of us.
Fitch Ratings warned that China's banks have lent up to $1,000bn (£600bn) since December 2008. "Money is leaking instead into Shanghai's stock casino, or being used to keep bankrupt builders on life support." This does not help the world economy.
2009-06-26 "The Iraq War and other events which helped set off an increase in the price of oil had a further depressing effect on countries which import energy, including the U.S. The magnitude of the increase in energy prices was exacerbated by financial speculation. This change in the price of energy, accompanied by governments' attempts to develop alternative bio energy sources contributed to higher food prices. The sharp increase in energy prices thus directly and indirectly brought further reductions in purchasing power within many countries. The transfer of income from those who suffered from these price increases to those who benefited weakened global aggregate demand and contributed to the global imbalances which played an important role in the crisis (Stiglitz Commission 2009)."
2009-05 During "an annual conference of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, top executives from Direct Edge and the NYSE angrily debated the merits of flash orders. Flash orders are a type of high frequency trading. Institutional paying participants get a flash peek at prices before they are released to the broader, public market (more)."
2009-03-24 The Federal Reserve, working closely with the Treasury, made the decision to lend to AIG on September 16, 2008. It was an extraordinary time. Global financial markets were experiencing unprecedented strains and a worldwide loss of confidence. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had been placed into conservatorship only two weeks earlier, and Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy the day before. We were very concerned about a number of other major firms that were under intense stress. AIG's financial condition had been deteriorating for some time, caused by actual and expected losses on subprime mortgage-backed securities and on credit default swaps that AIG's Financial Products unit, AIG-FP, had written on mortgage-related securities. As confidence in the firm declined, and with efforts to find a private-sector solution unsuccessful, AIG faced severe liquidity pressures that threatened to force it imminently into bankruptcy (more). Claims of bondholders and counterparties were paid at 100 cents on the dollar by taxpayers, without giving taxpayers the rights to the future profits of these institutions. Benefits went to the banks while the taxpayers suffered the costs (more).
2009-02-03 The "U.S. government announced a restructuring of a bailout plan for the troubled insurer American International Group Inc. Monday, extending $30 billion in additional aid to the company. News of the additional funds came as AIG, once the world's largest insurer, said it lost $61.7 billion in the fourth quarter, the biggest quarterly loss in U.S. corporate history, amid continued financial market turmoil."
2008-10-18 The President of the United Nations General Assembly, "Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, announced his intention to establish a taskforce of experts to review the workings of the global financial system, including major bodies such as the World Bank and the IMF, and to suggest steps to be taken by Member States to secure a more sustainable and just global economic order (http://www.un.org)." Noted economist and Kerala State Planning Board Vice-Chairman Prabhat Patnaik was included in a four-member high-power task force of the United Nations (U.N.) to recommend reforms of the global financial system. The task force Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System (2009), informally known as the Stiglitz Commission, was headed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.
2008 Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the last two investment banks left standing, announced they would become traditional bank holding companies, marking the end of an era for Wall Street (more).
2008-09-16 American International Group, Inc. (AIG) (NYSE: AIG), an American insurance corporation, suffered a liquidity crisis following the downgrade of its credit rating. "The Federal Reserve, working closely with the Treasury, made the decision to lend to AIG on September 16, 2008. It was an extraordinary time. Global financial markets were experiencing unprecedented strains and a worldwide loss of confidence. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had been placed into conservatorship only two weeks earlier, and Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy the day before. We were very concerned about a number of other major firms that were under intense stress. AIG's financial condition had been deteriorating for some time, caused by actual and expected losses on subprime mortgage-backed securities and on credit default swaps that AIG's Financial Products unit, AIG-FP, had written on mortgage-related securities. As confidence in the firm declined, and with efforts to find a private-sector solution unsuccessful, AIG faced severe liquidity pressures that threatened to force it imminently into bankruptcy (more)."
2008-07 2008 Lehman Brothers failed. Bubble popped and money fled from oil investment. Trading value of oil dropped by 80% (Dicker 2011).
2008 Oil reached $147 a barrel (Dicker 2011).
2008-06 Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke "singled out the role of commodity prices among the main drivers of price dynamics, underscoring the importance for policy of both forecasting commodity price changes and understanding the factors that drive those changes (Pesenti and Groen 2011-03 citing Bernanke)."
2008-04 The macroeconomic outlook changed rapidly and dramatically as the global economy experienced the near-collapse of trade volumes and the associated plunge in commodity prices was the harbinger of pervasive disinflation risks (Pesenti and Groen 2011-03).
2008 In the ten years after Born' s 1998 proposal, the market in derivatives exploded from $27 trillion to one worth more than $ 600 trillion. By comparison, the entire U.S. economy was worth $ 14 trillion. Hirsch, Michael. 2010. Capital Offense: How Washington's Wise Men Turned America's Future Over to Wall Street. New Jersey: John Wiley.
2008-06 "NYSE Floor Brokers Get New Tools." The New York Stock Exchange introduced two new technologies to give brokers on the NYSE trading floor the ability to trade algorithmically and to strengthen the brokers' ability to locate large sources of liquidity. more
2008-06-17 Ross Levin, a Wall Street NYC hedge fund analyst with Arbiter Partners, who calls himself a "passive speculator in securities" met Lionel Lepine, a member of the Athabaskan Chipewyan First Nation whose family and friends living on the contaminated watershed upriver from the oil sands' effluence are suffering from unprecedented numbers of cancerous tumours. Levin attended Calgary's prominent energy investment forum and "found himself in the eye of a growing environmental storm battering Alberta's oilsands — one of several clashes centred on the energy sector."
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2008-04-02 – After two decades spent expanding in Britain, the United States and other developed economies, the world's third biggest bank is shifting its ….. or if the government forces banks to separate their retail arms from investment banking, dubbed "casino banking" by some politicians. .
2008 PM Harper apologized for past treatment of Canada's First Nations.
2008 Pollution of the Athabaskan River north of the oil sands
2008 Impatient development of nonrenewable resources in the oil sands.
2008-03-24 Reich, Robert B. 2008-03-24. Is the Game About to Stop? American consumers' buying power was less than the goods and services the U.S. economy is capable of producing. Reich predicted fewer jobs, even less consumption which would lead to even fewer jobs and possible a recession which could become a full-fledged depression. Reich argued that fiscal and monetary policies could perhaps make up for consumers' lack of buying power. American consumers were already deep in debt, their homes were losing value, their paychecks were shrinking.
2008 Meteoric rise of oil commodities market directly caused by irresponsible speculators playing with volatile, unpredictable hedge funds that play havoc with the market making a fortune for some while destroying economic, social and ecological environments all around them.
2008 Calgary has a high percentage of young millionaires with lots of disposable income. There are also c.4000 homeless people in Calgary, the oil capital of Canada. c. 40% of the homeless are working poor who are unable to afford housing.
2007-10-31 Meredith Whitney, an obscure analyst of financial firms for Oppenheimer Securities "predicted that Citigroup had so mismanaged its affairs that it would need to slash its dividend or go bust. It's never entirely clear on any given day what causes what in the stock market, but it was pretty obvious that on October 31, Meredith Whitney caused the market in financial stocks to crash. By the end of the trading day, a woman whom basically no one had ever heard of had shaved $369 billion off the value of financial firms in the market. Four days later, Citigroup's C.E.O., Chuck Prince, resigned. In January, Citigroup slashed its dividend (Lewis, Michael. 2008. The End)."
2007-08 Arnuk and Saluzzi argued in their white paper entitled Toxic Equity Trading Order Flow on Wall Street: The Real Force Behind the Explosion in Volume and Volatility" (2009-12-17) that electronic trading, the new for-profit exchanges and ECNs, the NYSE Hybrid and the SEC's Regulation NMS all came together in unexpected ways in the late summer of 2007. This perfect storm caused the Volatility Index, [stock market volatility index (VIX) "fear gauge" measures the expectation of price movement over the next 30 days. The higher the reading, the more likely stocks are to move in one direction or another] to climb, trading volumes to increase explosively, stock prices and indexes to experience rapid change. "
This has resulted in the proliferation of a new generation of very profitable, high-speed, computerized trading firms and methods that are causing retail and institutional investors to chase artificial prices (Arnuk and Saluzzi 2009-12-17)."
2006-03-07 The merger of NYSE and Archipelago was completed forming the NYSE Group, Inc., a holding company that operates two securities exchanges: the NYSE and NYSE Arca, Inc. They are a leading provider of securities listing, trading and market data products and services (more).
2007-06-18 Wolf, Martin. 2007-06-18. "Unfettered finance is fast reshaping the global economy." "In Rome everything is for sale."
2007-01 "Both the switch to trading in penny increments in January 2007 and stepped-up activity by high-frequency traders have cut into dealer profits. That has made the dealers less willing to shoulder the entire burden of supporting the exchanges. Almost 90 percent of industry volume is now being traded in options subject to the "penny pilot." With the minimum trading increment down from 5 cents to 1 cent in the most active options, competition has cut dealer spreads dramatically. "Options Market Makers Catch a Break on Fees as Customers Pick Up." Traders Magazine
2006 "[F]lash orders – a key focus of the New York Times article, which prompted an almost instant response from politicians and regulators. Flash orders first appeared in US equity markets in 2006, with the launch of the Enhanced Liquidity Provider (ELP) programme by Direct Edge. The idea was that if an order had been sent into Direct Edge and not found a match, it would be shown to other market participants before being routed out to alternative markets, as would normally happen. In theory, more of the orders placed with Direct Edge would be filled, and more customers would have a shot at trading at the price they want (Wood, Duncan. 2009-09-04) "Murky business." Risk magazine." tags: Algorithmic Trading Topics: Equities, Trading
2006-2008 Mainly cautious elderly customers were ill-advised by Barclays between 2006 and 2008 to put money into high-risk investments Aviva Global Balanced Income or the Aviva Global Cautious Income funds. No one at Barclays lost jobs even though this scandal cost Barclays shareholders close to £80 million and inflicted untold damage on Barclays' reputation. Read more
2005-12-15 NYSE Hybrid Market was launched, creating a unique blend of floor-based auction and electronic trading. NYSE Hybrid Market claimed to provide customers with more choices and greater flexibility in accessing the superior liquidity and best prices of the NYSE marketplace. In 2005, the combined dollar value of transaction volumes of the NYSE and NYSE Arca represented approximately $17.8 trillion dollars, which was greater than the value of trading of Nasdaq ($10.1 trillion), the London Stock Exchange ($5.7 trillion), the Tokyo Stock Exchange ($4.4 trillion), Euronext ($2.9 trillion) and the Deutsche Börse ($1.9 trillion) (more)
2005-06-29 70 FR 37496, 37627 Rule 603 — Distribution, Consolidation, and Display of Information with Respect to Quotations for and Transactions in NMS Stocks. "In Regulation Fair Disclosure, the SEC took the stand that firms cannot release fundamental information to a subset of investors before others. On the other hand, Rule 603(a) established a different approach to market data, whereby market centers could sell data directly to subscribers, in effect creating a tiered system of investors with respect to access to information about market events. Rule 603(a) prohibits an SRO or a broker-dealer from supplying the data via direct feeds faster than it supplies it to the Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC) that processes the data and distributes the "tape." However, the operation of processing and retransmitting data via SIAC appears to add 5 to 10 millisecond and hence subscribers to direct exchange data feeds "see" the information before others who observe the tape (more)."
2005-07-31 CEO, John Thain discussed NYSE plans to merge its floor-based trading system with a relatively new electronic market known as Archipelago creating a hybrid system that allows electronic, instantaneous and anonymous trades. Thain's former employer, Goldman Sachs, was on both sides of the deal representing the NYSE and Archipelago. Goldman was the biggest NYSE seat holder, owned a specialist firm and 15% of Archipelago "NYSE chief: Hybrid trading system's the way to go."
2005Many banks operated proprietary trading units that were organized much like hedge funds. Risk exposures of the hedge-fund industry began to have a material impact on the banking sector, resulting in new sources of systemic risks (more).
2005 High-frequency trading accounted for 30% of daily volume in US stocks (Mackenzie, Michael; Grant, Jeremy. 2009-08-06. "The dash to flash." Financial Times.)
2005 Direct Edge, a small, electronic trading company opened for business using high-frequency trading (lightning-fast computers equipped with sophisticated and powerful algorithms that are capable of executing trading strategies) and flash orders (literally flashing their orders to their own investors for about a tenth of a second before releasing it to the public market).
2005-07 S&P upgraded China's sovereign rating by one notch to A-minus, citing China's aggressive overhaul of its financial sector and improved profitability. China is rated 'A2' by Moody's Investors Service and 'A' by Fitch Ratings. Liu, Henry C. K. World Trade Needs a Global Cartel for Labor (OLEC).
2005 According to one study, if the share of world trade and world gross domestic product for non-industrial countries had remained at its 2000 levels, then by 2005, real oil prices would have been 40 percent lower, and real metals prices 10 percent lower, than they actually were (Pain, Koske, and Sollie, 2006). Since 2005, continued strong growth in the demands for resources of emerging market economies have likely put further considerable upward pressure on commodity prices (Bernanke 2008-06-09). "
2004 The "demand for oil by members of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has been essentially flat since 2004 (Bernanke 2008-06-09). "
2004-08-02 Revolutionary electronic trading practices transformed the stock market. The NYSE filed to expand using the NYSE Direct+® system. NYSE Direct+® eliminated limits on the size, timing, and types of orders that can be submitted via Direct+, significantly increasing the level of purely electronic trading at the NYSE.
2004 The "demand for oil by members of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has been essentially flat since 2004 (Bernanke 2008-06-09). "
2003 The price of oil had remained relatively stable from 1990 to 2003 when the price of oil became volatile. The price increased sixfold in five years then lost 80% of its value in 6 months (Dicker 2011:viii).
2001 There was "an overnight change in the trading patterns of the Nasdaq 100 Index which highlighted the competitive impacts of the SEC reforms and foreshadowed the dominance of the high frequency traders and all-electronic marketplaces. At the time, the ETF for the Nasdaq 100 Index (then known as the QQQ) was the most actively traded security and was primarily traded on the American Stock Exchange which utilized a manual floor-based specialist system. Using ATSs, the high frequency traders began using their efficient automated trading systems to narrow the quoted spreads in the QQQ from several pennies down to tenths of a penny, saving investors millions in the process (Traders) ."
Within months, investors voted with their feet and made the electronic markets that featured the liquidity and narrower spreads of the high frequency traders the dominant venues for the QQQ. Investors never looked back. Ultimately, the NYSE and the Nasdaq Stock Market were compelled to purchase these electronic markets that catered to high frequency traders (Archipelago was purchased by the NYSE and INET by the Nasdaq Stock Market). The traditional, uncompetitive Wall Street market maker model was replaced and the exchanges were transformed to open, fair and transparent electronic marketplaces.
2000 More than 90 foreign futures exchanges emerged with the ever-increasing demand for new financial instruments "to hedge against fluctuating interest rates, changing foreign exchange rates and institutional securities portfolios (Bernstein 2000:46).
2000 The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) trades futures in livestock futures, currency futures, interest rate futures, stock index futures (Bernstein 2000:70).
1999 The most actively traded future contracts were interest rates, futures, stock index futures, energy futures, currency futures and agricultural futures (Bernstein 2000:72).
1998 Long Term Capital Management collapsed.
1998Security and Exchange Commission ruling allowed electronic communication networks (ECN's for short) to trade equities in competition with the traditional exchanges. New technologies made the automation possible resulting in the development of high frequency trading: Lightening-quick computers, aided by powerful algorithms, buy and sell stocks based on price or other markers (more).
1998 Brooksley Born, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission declared that the unregulated regulation of private derivative contracts could "pose grave dangers to our economy." He argued forcefully for regulation of private derivative contracts but lost to Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin who were against policing the deals.
1990 The price of crude oil rose dramatically when Hussein invaded Kuwait.
1986 The total volume of futures contracts trading was 184 million and the T bonds were among the most actively traded future contracts (Bernstein 2000:71).
1989 Michael Lewis' novel entitled Liar's Poker was published. He intended to write a period piece about the 1980s in America. He had expected readers to be outraged that in 1986, the C.E.O. of Salomon Brothers, John Gutfreund, was paid $3.1 million. He expected readers to be horrified that one of the traders, Howie Rubin, had moved to Merrill Lynch, where he lost $250 million. He expected readers to be shocked to learn that a Wall Street C.E.O. had only the vaguest idea of the risks his traders were running." Writing in 2008 he expressed dismay that Wall Street continued for another 20 years and the public were more in awe than angry. Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom#ixzz1Qd1u5MLZ
1987 The World Commission on Environment and Sustainable Development (Brundtland Commission) defined sustainable development as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
1987-10-19 "The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 20%, and the swoon extended into the following day, before a rebound. Floor traders, working by telephone, dominated the action and computer-generated trading was still in its infancy. Dark pools and high-frequency trading were the stuff of science fiction. Trading reached 600 million shares, according to the SEC (source)."
1982 Futures trading in the US was self-regulating and anyone in the business had to become a member of the National Futures Association (NFA).
1970s The Bretton Woods system broke down in the early 1970s. This was followed by a period of financial market liberalization and deregulation, by a surge of private capital flows and by the increasingly global reach of financial institutions.
1974 The US Congress passed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act and established Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to protect participants in the futures market from fraud, deceit and abusive practices such as unfair trading practices (price manipulation, prearranged trading, trading ahead of a customer), credit and financial risks, and sales practice abuses (Bernstein 2000:32). Individual nation states have similar regulating bodies.
1973/4 The International Energy Agency (IEA) was founded as an autonomous organisation to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 28 member countries and beyond. The IEA's initial role was to help countries co-ordinate a collective response to major disruptions in oil supply through the release of emergency oil stocks to the markets. The Executive Director in 2011 is Nobuo Tanaka "Total oil stocks in IEA member countries amount to over 4.1 billion barrels, and nearly 1.6 billion barrels of this are public stocks held exclusively for emergency purposes. IEA net oil-importing countries have a legal obligation to hold emergency oil reserves equivalent to at least 90 days of net oil imports. These countries are holding stock levels well above this minimum amount, currently at 146 days of net imports (http://www.iea.org)"
1972 The total volume of futures contracts trading was 18 million and the top ten most actively traded future contracts were agricultural futures (Bernstein 2000:71).
1970s There was increasing volatility in international currency exchange rates as the Bretton Woods agreement began to break down. Business people transferred risk of volatility in international markets by hedging with speculators willing to take the risk. Futures markets began to expand into foreign currencies as fluctuated wildly competing against each other and the US dollar.
1960s Futures trading, also known as commodities trading, the final frontier of capitalism, became a popular speculative and investment vehicle in the US in the 1960s (Bernstein 2000:1).
1960s Futures trading, also known as commodities trading, the final frontier of capitalism, became a popular speculative and investment vehicle in the US in the 1960s (Bernstein 2000:1). These financial instruments offer unlimited profit potential with relatively little capital. Speculators are drawn to the possibility of quick money or what I like to call impatient money. The great wealth accumulated from speculative financial instruments has spawned careers in brokerage, market analysis, computerized trading, computer software and hardware, accounting, law, advertising which themselves subdivide into more recent opportunities such as those related to risk-management.
1929-30 "As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth — not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced — to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery. Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped." Eccles, Marriner S. 1951. Beckoning frontiers: Public and personal recollections Ed. Hyman, Sidney. Alfred A. Knopf.
1919 – 1945 The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) traded futures in eggs, butter, apples, poultry and frozen eggs (Bernstein 2000:70).
1865 The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) organized trading of futures contracts.
1848 The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was formed as a price risk occurred in the grain markets of Chicago. It was a cash market for grain. Forward or "to-arrive" contracts began trading at the CBOT almost immediately.
1710 The first modern organized futures exchange began with the Dojima Rice Exchange in Osaka, Japan.The Japanese feudal landowners began to use certificates of receipt against future rice crops. As these futures certificates became financial instruments in the general economy the value of the certificates would rise and fall as the price of rice fluctuated. The Dojima Rice Exchange emerged as the world's first futures market where speculators traded contracts for the future delivery of rice or "certificates of receipt." The Japanese government outlawed the practice when futures contracts (where delivery never took place) began to have no relationship to the underlying cash value of the commodity leading to wild and unpredictable fluctuations (Bernstein 2000:30).
Actors and Actants
Electronic Communication Network (ECN) "An electronic system that attempts to eliminate the role of a third party in the execution of orders entered by an exchange market maker or an over-the-counter market maker, and permits such orders to be entirely or partly executed."
High-frequency trading firms (they self-identify as Automated Trading Professionals) use high-frequency techniques (software-based mechanisms: high frequency algorithmic trading) with real-time, co-located, high-frequency (sub-millisecond) trading platform—one (data collected then orders: created-routed-executed). Wall Street banks and hedge funds also use high-frequency techniques but new (ie emerged formed in c. 1999-2001) small (most have as few as 12 to 100 employees), independent firms account for most high-frequency trading, handling 60 % of the 7 B shares that change hands daily on US stock markets on Wall Street and hedge funds. These high-frequency trading firms have formed a trade group called Principal Traders Group in an effort to hold off regulators who want to curb their activities. The members of the FIA Principal Traders Group is the industry's response to the Joint CFTC-SEC Advisory Committee examination of the market structure and policy issues arising from the extraordinary market turmoil that occurred on May 6, 2010. See (Bowley, Graham. 2011-07-18. " Split-second traders aim to polish image." New York Times.) High-frequency trading firms using high-frequency techniques (software-based mechanisms: high frequency algorithmic trading) earned $12.9 billion in profit in the last two years (2009-2011), according to TABB Group, a specialist on the markets. TABB Group content focused on the business and technology issues facing US equity and options trading.
RGM Advisors, is a high-frequency trading firm in Austin, Texas. RGM CEO Richard Gorelick, is leading his company to seek a higher public profile.
Low latency Algorithmic Trading is used to process market updates and turn around orders within milliseconds. Low latency trading refers to the network connections used by financial institutions to connect to stock exchanges and Electronic communication networks (ECNs) to execute financial transactions. With the spread of computerized trading, electronic trading now makes up 60% to 70% of the daily volume on the NYSE and algorithmic trading close to 35%. Trading using computers has developed to the point where millisecond improvements in network speeds offer a competitive advantage for financial institutions. (Low latency is also being discussed in the advertising community, as a form of advertising that responds rapidly to consumer inputs, often from tweets.)
International Energy Agency (IEA) The International Energy Agency (IEA) is an autonomous organisation which works to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 28 member countries and beyond. Founded in response to the 1973/4 oil crisis, the IEA's initial role was to help countries co-ordinate a collective response to major disruptions in oil supply through the release of emergency oil stocks to the markets. It is at the heart of global dialogue on energy, providing authoritative and unbiased research, statistics, analysis and recommendations. The IEA is committed to keeping the oil supplies well-stocked. The Executive Director in 2011 is Nobuo Tanaka "Total oil stocks in IEA member countries amount to over 4.1 billion barrels, and nearly 1.6 billion barrels of this are public stocks held exclusively for emergency purposes. IEA net oil-importing countries have a legal obligation to hold emergency oil reserves equivalent to at least 90 days of net oil imports. These countries are holding stock levels well above this minimum amount, currently at 146 days of net imports (http://www.iea.org)"
Henry C.K. Liu "is an independent commentator on culture, economics and politics. Born in Hong Kong and educated at Harvard University in architecture and urban design, Liu developed an interest in economics and international relations while pursuing interdisciplinary work on urban and regional development as a professor at UCLA, Harvard and Columbia universities. He was a planning/ development advisor to the late Winthrop Rockefeller, governor of Arkansas, and has received a national urban design award. Liu is currently the chairperson of a New York-based private investment group, a contributor to Asia Times Online and a visiting professor of global development at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He is an occasional advisor on economic policy to several governments of emerging economies. Liu coined the term "dollar hegemony" to explain that the dollar, a fiat currency since 1971 and the major reserve currency internationally, distorts global trade and finance. Liu is a critic of central banking. He also calls for the use of sovereign credit in lieu of foreign capital for financing domestic development in developing countries. Liu has also been vocal in his critique of Chinese economic policy, which he argues includes imbalances that result in severe income disparity and environmental neglect. In a series of articles in Asia Times Online, Liu proposed the establishment of the Organization of Labor-Intensive Exporting Countries (OLEC), an international cartel, to restore the balance of market power between capital and labor in the globalized economy. He blogs at henryckliu.com. Huffington Post."
Soft commodities:
OTC Over-the-counter derivatives markets engage in off-market trading for oil which is unregulated. Estimates for the OTC derivative market for all assets range upward of $600 trillion. See (Edison Electric Institute (EEI). 2010-01. "OTC Derivatives Reform: Energy Sector Impacts. p. 1."). "Use of Financial Derivatives: A typical, large independent oil & natural gas exploration and production company regularly deals with volatility in oil & natural gas exploration. Such companies regularly make extensive use of financial derivatives with the discrete purpose of ensuring a stable cash flow from which they can consistently fund their capital program to find and bring much needed energy resources to market. Although they may make use of exchange-traded instruments, many of their financial transactions are concluded overthe-counter (OTC) under bilateral credit agreements. These frequently use the OTC markets for efficiency and economic reasons and allows the companies to: 1) customize the instrument specifically to operations;
2) reduce the need for cash by permitting more flexibility in the types of collateral leading to a more efficient use of capital and greater liquidity; 3) provide credit exposure diversification; and 4) have the ability to modify credit arrangements depending on a variety of factors during the term of a trade (more)."
Universal Banking Model – Investment and retail banking in one organisation. There is widespread concern that casino banking endangers security of traditional retail banking.
Webliography and Bibliography
Bernstein, Jake. 2000. How the Futures Markets Work. New York Institute of Finance.
Although it is quite old for the fast-paced risk management industry, there are certain basics that ring true. He briefly traced the history futures contracts leading to the volatile environment where agricultural futures were replaced by the less predictable currency markets. Of course, his book was written long before the meteoric rise of private equity funds. My concern remains with the absent ethical component on trading floors. Ethical responsibilities are as elastic as the regulations that govern the centuries old practice of hedging. In the period of late capitalism and the emergence of risk society, the cost of destructive unintended byproducts have created havoc in ways that far exceed the commodities/service value. The road to profits and impatient money, is paved with casualties. Berstein's facts of market life are telling. He encourages simple methods and systems which require few decisions and little mental conflict. Too much thought is not conducive to successful trading. Too much analysis costs lost opportunities. Keep systems simple. Control your emotions. Practice caring less so that you remain more objective. Don't ask why. Knowing why may hinder you more than it will help you. Patterns are the best indicators available (What feeds into a "pattern" however is not a science). Timing is what makes money in the futures market (Bernstein 2000:282-3). In other words, futures' gurus encourage young hedge fund analysts to not think too much about factors such as displacement of peoples, the degradation of living conditions and the way in which they unwittingly contribute to making vulnerable ecologies and peoples even more vulnerable. Their gurus tell them to not think about the impact of their actions. They are told to not ask why the prices of essential commodities like fuel and food that they are playing with, are pushing certain groups into unimaginable levels of social exclusion. In the end groups at-risk to health degradation are always those least able to protect themselves. How convenient that the gurus do not factor in these social issues. They are entirely absent from finance reports. But then a lot of information is purposely not included in financial and business reports. Bernstein argues that the simpler systems that take fewer things into consideration will lead to more profits. Yet when he lists off all the potential factors in operation in even a simple fundamental analysis, it is not at all simple. It begins with the highly complex. The algorithms involved may appear to be simplified through the use of databases that seem to generate accurate, objective hard facts. In reality, the accuracy of any query depends on what was fed into it.
Bernanke, B. S. 2008. "Outstanding Issues in the Analysis of Inflation." Speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. 53rd Annual Economic Conference. Chatham, MA.
Blais, Javier. 2011-06-01. Commodity swings expected after US storms forecast." Financial Times. London.
Coyle, Diane. 2011. The Economics of Enough: How to Run the Economy as If the Future Matters. Princeton University Press.
nature of global capitalism, fiscal policy, inequality and the environment with reflection on civil society, economic growth ought not to be a policy goal, use of a greater range of economic indicators–she backs output growth as an objective, bond holders are safe; citizens are not; beyond traditional measures of debt in thinking about future obligations; top-rank economist's view from the summit, challenge the neo-classical economic purist; economics and sustainability; serious and difficult changes made to economic systems' structure and function; Herman Daly's Steady-State Economics; long-run development; resource depletion, population growth, world poverty, rising debt, rates of innovation;
Cuthbertson, Richard. 2008-06-17. "Energy battles boiling over: A Wall Street analyst attending Calgary's prominent energy investment forum found himself in the eye of a growing environmental storm battering Alberta's oilsands — one of several clashes centred on the energy sector Monday." Calgary Herald.
Eccles, Marriner S. 1951. Beckoning frontiers: Public and personal recollections Ed. Hyman, Sidney. Alfred A. Knopf.
Flood, Chris. 2009-10-30 "Markets: Oil dips after US GDP boost." Financial Times.
Hirsch, Michael. 2010. Capital Offense: How Washington's Wise Men Turned America's Future Over to Wall Street. New Jersey: John Wiley.
Lewis, Michael. 1989. Liar's Poker. W.W. Norton & Company.
Martin, Roger L. 2011-05. Fixing the Game: How Runaway Expectations Broke the Economy, and How to Get Back to Reality. Harvard Business School.
Orphanides, Athanasios, and John C. Williams (2007). "Robust Monetary Policy with Imperfect Knowledge," Journal of Monetary Economics, vol. 54 (July), pp. 1406-35.
Pain, Nigel, Isabell Koske, and Marte Sollie (2006). "Globalisation and Inflation in the OECD Economies," OECD Economics Department Working Paper Series 524. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, November.
Pesenti, Paolo A. Groen, Jan J.J. 2011-03. Commodity prices, Commodity Currencies, and Global Economics. Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs. European Commission. Economics Papers 440. Brussels. Commodity prices, forecasting, exchange rates, factor models, PLS regression
Powell, Barbara. 2011-06-28. "Gasoline Futures Gain as Crude, Equities Advance, Dollar Drops." Bloomberg.
Rich, Robert W., and Charles Steindel (2007), "A Comparison of Measures of Core Inflation," Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Economic Policy Review, vol. 13 (December).
Wallace, Lane. 2009-07-07. "The Uncommon Navigator: What Wall Street Should Learn from the NFL." The Atlantic.
Filed in Business & Finance, economic efficiency, Economics, Economy & Finance, ethics, Power and everyday life, Public Policy, reflexivity, risk management, Risk Society, Social History Timeline, wealth disparities will intensify
Tags: Barclays, bonus-driven banking, boom and bust, casino banking, commodities, futures, hedge funds, hedging, High frequency trading, market fundamentals, soft commodities, speculation, supply and demand

subset: commoncrawl


text:
to the 3rd Annual Foster Farms Fresh Chicken Cooking Contest. We
are excited to see your original recipe featuring Foster Farms fresh
chicken and ingredients that are local to your area - like California
avocados, Washington apples or Oregon marrionberries. Fifteen semifinalists
will have the chance to compete for a trip to the Napa Valley and
a chance to be chosen as our 2012 Grand Prize winner. Make sure
you don't miss out on submitting YOUR recipe.
key dates:
Our 2012 Grand Prize Winner will be selected
September 28, 2012!!
encourage you to take a moment to review the full Contest
Rules, the Judging Criteria,
Frequently Asked Questions and What
to Expect should your recipe be chosen as one of our 15 semifinalists.
Don't forget to submit your recipe today by clicking here.
We look forward to seeing your favorite Foster Farms fresh chicken


text:
Visit Narrabri NSW - it is set in the heart of the rich Namoi Valley, in North West NSW, Australia. Narrabri NSW is home to 7,300 residents who enjoy good shopping, good sporting facilities and a very good way of life. Narrabri is situated 100 kms from Moree in the north and 110kms from Coonabarabran in the south on the Newell Highway. Gunnedah is 95kms to the east and Wee Waa is 45kms west on the Kamilaroi Highway. It is the home of the Narrabri Shire Council, The Crossing Theatre, and the untamed beauty of Mt Kaputar National Park, Pilliga National Park and the Australia Telescope. Narrabri services the surrounding towns of Boggabri, Bellata, Wee Waa, Pilliga and Gwabegar.
Narrabri has daily Country Link Rail, air services and interstate coaches. The district has an average summer minimum temperature of 17° and a maximum of around 37°. Recorded average winter minimum and maximum temperatures are 3° and 17° respectively. The district can also expect a rainfall level of approximately 635 millimetres in one calendar year. It is 190 m above sea level.
Narrabri tourism includes an amazing amount of interesting places to visit, a wide selection of eating experiences. Some menus include fine local produce such as olives, wine and superlative pasta which is made from the high quality durum wheat grown in the Bellata area. Accommodation is plentiful and of excellent standard. It includes motels, caravan parks, B & Bs and farm stays, either self catering or fully pampered!
Photos in this website are supplied by Margo Palmer, John Burgess, Rohan Boehm and the Narrabri Information Centre
Narrabri NSW is the headquarters for two major agricultural research stations, the Australian Cotton Research Institute and the IA Watson Grains Research Centre. Narrabri's growth and development is strongly tied to the success of its agricultural and commercial industries, and is moving ahead towards a prosperous future with the current population being approximately 7,500.
On a regional scale Narrabri NSW is encompassed by Regional Development Australia - Northern Inland NSW. This entity undertakes the promotion of the region
The Narrabri NSW District is a major producer of a variety of agricultural commodities including cotton, wheat, beef cattle and sheep and pulse crops.
Narrabri NSW always has houses for sale and houses for rent on a wide range and commercial blocks and shops also come up for sale. The variety is amazing.
The Business directory encompasses the towns of the Narrabri Shire, if you own a business the cost to have a landing page and or a listing is very minimal.
The major semi action will get underway at Walcha's Captain Cook Oval from 11.25am with the under 19s match between Pirates and Narrabri. This will be followed by the second grade clash between Pirates and Moree at 12.55pm, with the women's sevens match between Gunnedah and Narrabri to be held at 2.35pm. The first grade fixture between Walcha and Narrabri will kick-off at 3pm.
Price and Smith were both featured among the wicket-takers, both picking up two.
"We have Charles Mitchell, Jayden Zahra Smith and Harrison Townsend returning after having being involved in the joint national title winning team from 2018," McLay said.
THE state's mining watchdog has suspended the exploration licence of Narrabri Coal, for building unauthorised tracks in the Pilliga Forest.
The long-wall mine, which forms part of Whitehaven Coal's operations, was found to be in breach of its licence following a state-wide compliance blitz in June.
More than a dozen hollow trees, which provide important habitat to native animals, were knocked down. The unauthorised paths also failed to divert around environmentally sensitive areas.
Resources Regulator head honcho Anthony Keon said the mine's actions showed a "comprehensive failure" to follow "fundamental regulatory obligations".
"The construction of the unauthorised tracks resulted in significant environmental harm," Mr Keon said.
"Exploration activities are subject to strict conditions in order to ensure appropriate environmental protections.
Citizen science group, the Leard Forest Node, has been monitoring the mine's "progressive incursion" in to the Pilliga forest for a couple of years, spokeswoman Anna Christie said.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg, the Narrabri Coal mine has been flying under the radar for several years," Ms Christie said.
She was glad to see meaningful action taken against the mine, rather than just "a fine and a tap of the wrist".
Have your say. Click this link to send a letter to the editor
The suspension will remain in place until the mine conducts a full review of its compliance systems and can satisfy the watchdog that appropriate controls have been put in place.
Five other joint-venture partners also had their exploration licence suspended. The licence holders acknowledged the offending behaviour and offered to suspend all drilling and clearing activities.
The mine will be able to continue operating, however the suspension stops it from expanding or investigating new sites.
Whitehaven CEO Paul Flynn accepted that on this occasion the company failed to properly obverse its exploration obligations
"Based on our inquiries to date, the circumstances and communication failures that led to this outcome are unacceptable," Mr Flynn said.
"Whitehaven took immediate corrective action following the Regulator's site inspection, suspending all exploration activity and commissioning an independent audit and investigation to determine necessary corrective actions.
"The company is committed to ensuring all relevant issues are identified and addressed before exploration activities at Narrabri can resume and will continue to cooperate fully with the NSW Resources Regulator to achieve this outcome."
FOR SALE 5 2 4 Price $420,000.00 Negotiable and all reasonable offers will be considered.
This weatherboard and Hardiplank home is situated on the outskirts of town inside the levee bank. Zoned General Industrial on 2.3 acres.
4 bedroom home for Sale!!
Fully ducted split system, double garage with loft.
Large entertainment room, 2 bathrooms, main bedroom with ensuite, 3 bedrooms have built ins.
Pool, Solar panels.
For more information contact
Luke Humphries 0428957049 or Erin Humphries 0408715321
Long Term Lease in Main Street
• Lot 162 DP 1035634 Shop - one commercial shop
• Zoned B2 Local Centre
Commercial Investment Office Space available in Wee Waa for Sale
1,019 ㎡ leased/Rented just off Main Street. Front Shop 2 sold
Genuine inquiries Call Sue Smith 0428 436 720
Seats available on the Gwabegar to Narrabri Bus Service on Wednesday 10th October. Contact us now on 6795 4265 or email@example.com to book a seat or for future dates.
Categories: Events, Come By Chance, Gwabegar, Narrabri, Pilliga, Wee Waa
Categories: Events, Burren Junction, Collarenebri, Narrabri, Wee Waa
Categories: Events, Burren Junction, Narrabri, Wee Waa
Categories: Events, Narrabri, Wee Waa
Based on current and projected restrictions on gatherings, we are hopeful that our 2020 sale will be able to proceed as per normal, in the live video auction format, with some adjustments made on site to accommodate social distancing regulations. As with previous years, we will also be interfacing the sale with AuctionsPlus to give those who do not wish to attend, or cannot make the sale the opportunity to bid.
With this in mind, we will also be hosting an inspection day on FRIDAY 26th JUNE 2020 to give those not attending the opportunity to view the sale draft. We strongly encourage inspections during this time, particularly for those who are at risk or caregivers to those at risk.
Inspections during the inspection day will be available by appointment, with appointment times allotted to attendees, so that we are able to better manage social distancing regulations. If you are unable to make this day, please get in contact with us to make other arrangements.
We will continue to monitor and adhere to the latest advice from the Australian Government regarding COVID-19. Updates will be made via our website and social media platforms if and when they are required. If you have any questions, or would like to make an appointment to view our sale draft, please feel free to give one of us or our selling agents a call!
Categories: Events, Baan Baa, Bellata, Boggabri, Burren Junction, Collarenebri, Come By Chance, Eulah Creek, Gwabegar, Lightning Ridge, Maules Creek, Narrabri, Pilliga, Rowena, Walgett, Wee Waa, Yarrie Lake
Full Weather Details Click Here
Full Weather click Herehttp://www.willyweather.com.au/nsw/new-england-and-north-west-slopes/narrabri.html
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