Chicago’s Futures and Options Expo 2008
By Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)
The Futures Industry Association organized their annual Futures and Options Expo in Chicago on November 10th – 12th, bringing together the most influential people from the derivatives industry, from senior staff at brokerage firms and exchanges to pension fund managers, CTAs, CPOs, and individual investors. According to the FIA website, over 4000 people from more than 30 countries attended.
The two-day event kicked off on that Monday evening at an opening reception held in the preserved and reconstructed Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room, located at the Art Institute. Over the following days, participants attended a variety of sessions to discuss industry trends, hear expert views on key issues, improve trading skills and learn about new products, systems and practices.
This year’s conference revolved around three major themes: politics, the market crisis, and the changes in regulations that we should expect in the future. One hot sub-topic was emissions trading, or, as panelist Gregory Lawrence from McDermott, Will and Emery put it, “the green squeeze”. Although pushed aside somewhat by the market crisis, all the panelists at the “Outlook for Emissions Trading in the U.S.” session believe that emissions trading will become important again, especially in light of the incoming administration’s stand on the environment. Lawrence told the audience that, to be effective, there needs to be one national registry, but who will regulate it remains unclear.
Dennis Gartman, journalist and publisher of The Gartman Letter, a daily commentary on the global capital markets, spoke at an FIA luncheon on the first day of the Expo. Discussing the current financial crisis, he said the government did the right thing by throwing liquidity at the problem and that now we need to utilize that liquidity properly. He also said he believes that the market has seen the last of the mathematicians and quant models for the foreseeable future.
On the topic of technology, the “Need for Speed” panel covered the cost of trading in the days of electronic platforms and co-locations. As Stephane Leroy, Head of Global Sales and Marketing at QuantHouse, put it, “we need to keep with the pace we create.” One of the things stressed was the need to know and understand the newest technology and to leverage relationships with third parties that do if one doesn’t have the expertise in this area.
At the panel entitled “Improving Markets: Lehman Lessons” on the second day, Ronald Filler, a former managing director in Lehman’s futures division, joined other US and European industry experts to look at what the industry has learned from the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the impact on Lehman’s clients. The panelists involved in the bankruptcy went through detailed happening of the week of September 15-22, highlighting challenges they faced. The salient point of the discussion was that the bankruptcy rules in currently in place were not designed for today’s exigent circumstances and those rules have hindered the seamless transfer of customer accounts.
This gathering of industry leaders concluded with a Futures Cares Charity Dinner at the Hilton Chicago benefiting the Greater Chicago Food Depository, a nonprofit food distribution and training center providing food for hungry people in the Chicago area.
Those still in the mood to network and mingle after the dinner made their way over to a popular local tavern. Others went directly home to recover from the conference. All left better informed and prepared to face the challenges of the coming months head on.
