Gold And Energy Futures Contracts to Begin Trading in Singapore

A little competition is just what the COMEX and LBMA need.

Wouldn't it be sweet if some master-of-the-universe trader caught rigging the markets and violating the rules were to find himself on the receiving end of an old-fashioned caning?

Let's see how the arbitrage develops, because you know it will. I wonder how transparent and liquid this exchange will be. It is certainly in an advantageous location.

Bloomberg
Singapore Mercantile Exchange to Start Gold, Energy Futures Trade Aug. 31
By Christian Schmollinger
Aug 17, 2010

Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) will begin live trading operations on Aug. 31, offering both gold and energy contracts, according to an e-mailed statement.

The exchange will offer futures for gold physically delivered in the island city-state, Brent oil denominated in euros and financially settled West Texas Intermediate crude, the statement said. The bourse also plans euro-dollar futures.

“SMX’s launch is a step in the right direction as we leverage off Singapore’s unique position as a premier financial and commercial hub in the region,” Thomas McMahon, the exchange’s chief executive officer, said in the statement. “The launch will provide market players in Asia the flexibility to trade products generic to regional trade flows within the Asian business day.”

The Singapore Mercantile Exchange is backed by Financial Technologies (India) Ltd., which operates the largest commodity bourse in India. Other commodity exchanges in Asia include Singapore Commodity Exchange and projects in China, Tokyo and Dubai.

Silver S Q U _ _ Z _ : Would You Like to Buy a Vowel?

"Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution
of that confidence which constitutes not only the ease but the existence of society."

Dr. Samuel Johnson

Another vertical move in silver from the New York open, as the bullion bears who are heavily short silver attempt to cover their paper shorts, which is a trick considering how tight the physical market is, and how vulnerable they are to discovery now that their attempt to suppress the price is falling apart.

It is like watching the Hunt Brothers silver gambit in reverse. As you might suspect, this is not the kind of action one sees in healthy markets. These volatile price swings are unnerving to most investors, and to the industries who rely on the markets to set prices for their planning in the real economy.

If you like your markets opaque, imbalanced, and dangerous, the NYMEX is your Bartertown.

If this turns into a serious short panic the price of silver could reach its all time high. Markets that are allowed to become this out of sync with legitimate price discovery are inefficient and disruptive to the real economy.

But now we will see if the bullion banks who have sowed the wind, reap the whirlwind.

But for now, the Administration is failing to reform the markets, as seen by the SEC's latest attempt to deal with a sudden 1,000 point drop in the Dow. It is almost funny to hear the Wall Street squeaktoys explaining that one away on bubblevision.

The Banks must be restrained, the financial system reformed, the economy brought back into balance, before there can be any sustained recovery.