Archive for September, 2009

Toronto Stock Exchange (II)

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Through a realignment plan, Toronto Stock Exchange became Canada’s sole exchange for the trading of senior equities. The Bourse de MontrĂ©al/Montreal Exchange assumed responsibility for the trading of derivatives and the Vancouver Stock Exchange and Alberta Stock Exchange merged to form the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX) handling trading in junior equities. The Canadian Dealing Network, Winnipeg Stock Exchange, and equities portion of the Montreal Exchange later merged with CDNX.

The TMX Group is the leader in the oil & gas sector – more oil & gas companies are listed on Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange than any other exchange in the world. At the end of June 30, 2007, there were 434 oil & gas companies with a total market capitalization of $544.9 billion listed on Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange. Oil & gas companies continue to raise equity on these exchanges with $5.56 billion raised in the first half of 2007, and $10.5 billion raised in 2006. Over 10 billion oil & gas shares, valued at $169.2 billion, traded on Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange in the first half of 2007.

In 2000, the Toronto Stock Exchange became a for-profit company and in 2001 its acronym was changed to TSX. In 2001, the Toronto Stock Exchange acquired the Canadian Venture Exchange, which was renamed the TSX Venture Exchange in 2002. This ended 123 years of the usage of TSE as a Canadian Stock Exchange. On May 11, 2007, the S&P/TSX Composite, the main index of the Toronto Stock Exchange, traded above the 14,000 point level for the first time ever.

On June 11, 2008 at a meeting of shareholders of TSX Group Inc a resolution to change the name of the corporation to TMX Group Inc. was put forward.

NASDAQ futures

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

NASDAQ futures are investment instruments which allow an investor to hedge with or speculate on the future value of various components of the NASDAQ market index.
Several futures instruments are derived from the NASDAQ Composite Index: the E-mini NASDAQ Composite futures, the E-mini NASDAQ Biology futures, the NASDAQ-100 futures, and the e-mini NASDAQ-100 futures.

The NASDAQ is the largest electronically traded stock exchange in the world. The NASDAQ Composite is a composite index of all securities traded on the NASDAQ exchange which has been continuously calculated since 1971. Futures contracts oblige the parties to buy and sell the derivative at a predetermined price at a predetermined time.

Futures contracts are beneficial to investors because of the leverage involved. While 100% of the cost is required to purchase stocks and their indexes (without borrowing on margin), only a fraction of five to fifteen percent the value of a futures contract is required to be deposited to gain control of the futures contract (called a performance bond). Therefore, increases and decreases in the value of the futures contracts are a much greater percentage of the capital required to control futures than stocks either bought outright or on margin. Risk of loss and potential for profit are equally amplified through this leveraging.

All of the NASDAQ derived future contracts are a a product of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).[5] They expire quarterly (March, June, September, and December), and are traded on the CME Globex exchange nearly 24 hours a day, from Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon.

E-Mini NASDAQ futures (ticker: QCN) contract’s minimum tick is .50 index points = $10.00[5] While the performance bond requirements vary from broker to broker, the CME requires $4,000, and continuing equity of $3,200 to maintain the position.

E-MINI NASAQ Biotechnology futures (ticker: BIO) contract’s minimum tick is .10 index points = $5.00[7] While the performance bond requirements vary from broker to broker, the CME requires $3,750, and continuing equity of $3000 to maintain the position.

NASDAQ-100 futures (ticker: ND) contract’s minimum tick is .25 index points = $25.00[8] While the performance bond requirements vary from broker to broker, the CME requires $17,500, and continuing equity of $14,000 to maintain the position.

E-Mini NASDAQ-100 futures (ticker: NQ) contract’s minimum tick is .25 index points = $5.00[9] While the performance bond requirements vary from broker to broker, the CME requires $3,500, and continuing equity of $2,800 to maintain the position.