RebelMouse looks similar to Pinterest at first glance, but might best be compared to a WordPress or Tumblr profile since the look can be easily customized. Page owners can curate their page with selections from Twitter and Facebook, tack on stories directly from websites with a "Stick It" tool (like Pinterest), or create a new blog post as one would do with a traditional blogging platform. Basic access to the site will be free, with a $3/month upgrade option for a personal domain, and a $3/week fee for corporate pages. Further along, Berry has said, he'll add e-commerce features to RebelMouse, letting people buy things from the profile pages they view.
Google Maps, the enormously popular mapping service with 1 billion monthly active users, showed off its latest advances today. The announcements, while impressive, seem to be an evasive maneuver ahead of next week's World Wide Developer Conference, in which Apple is expected to announce that it will drop Google Maps from its mobile operating system.
Brian McClendon, vice president for engineering, declined to tackle those rumors head-on, saying only, "We would like to get all services on all platforms."
Offline Maps
The most exciting news from the event is that the data-hungry mobile Maps app will now work offline. The Google Maps team is making downloadable versions of their maps that can be stored on mobile devices (but Android will get it first). Together with the compass feature on the smartphone, you can navigate a city without being connected to a 3G network.
"This provides you with familiar Google maps whether or not you have an internet connection," said Google product manager Rita Chen. Google expects these maps to be most useful for people without data plans and for those traveling outside their usual coverage area, as on international trips.
Street View Trekker
Luc Vincent Engineering director, Street View, also showed off Google's Trekker camera, a backpack-mounted panorama grabber that will allow the maps to go off-road.
It's under 40 pounds, runs on two lithium batteries for a whole day, and runs on Android. Vincent's taken it skiing, but wants to take it to the Grand Canron, Venice, castles, and other places in the next stage of Google Street View.
3D Imagery in Google Earth
Google has been working on delivering 3D models of cityscapes for the past six years. But until now, those have mostly involved computer-generated rendering of structures. Google is now using planes to fly over metropolitan areas and capture real-world images of city structures and then using that imagery to build photorealistic 3D images of cityscapes, as in the image of San Francisco below.
Google Earth users will now be able to use the software to explore cities by soaring "through" them. "We're trying to create magic here," said product manager Peter Birch. "We're trying to create the illusion that you're flying over the city."
Google will be delivering the 3D enhancements to iOS and Android "in the coming weeks" for a few select cities. Google wouldn't talk specific numbers, but Birch did say that by the end of year, it would include communities covering 300 million people.
RebelMouse Is A Pinterest-Tumblr-WordPress Mashup For Organizing Your Social Stream
Ex-Huffington Post tech chief Paul Berry released a beta version of his new social publishing platform, RebelMouse, this morning--and it's attracted a press conference full of reporters so far. RebelMouse sorts and displays your social streams in a neat front-page grid, and automatically updates as you add new entries to your Twitter or Facebook profile. You can already check out the beta feeds from a handful of reporters, including Peter Kafka from AllThingsD, Om Malik of GigaOm, Jay Yarrow from Business Insider, and our own Anjali Mullany.
RebelMouse looks similar to Pinterest at first glance, but might best be compared to a WordPress or Tumblr profile since the look can be easily customized. Page owners can curate their page with selections from Twitter and Facebook, tack on stories directly from websites with a "Stick It" tool (like Pinterest), or create a new blog post as one would do with a traditional blogging platform. Basic access to the site will be free, with a $3/month upgrade option for a personal domain, and a $3/week fee for corporate pages. Further along, Berry has said, he'll add e-commerce features to RebelMouse, letting people buy things from the profile pages they view.
LinkedIn Faces Leaked Passwords Hack And User Data Privacy Criticism
LinkedIn users were in for a security scare this morning when a Russian user claimed access to 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords which they published (without usernames) in an online forum. LinkedIn has acknowledged the finding, tweeting: "Our team is currently looking into reports of stolen passwords. Stay tuned for more." LinkedIn is also fending off criticism on the privacy front after a New York Times report revealed that meeting notes (including locations, participants and times) were sent to LinkedIn servers from iOS phones when users enabled their Calendar Sync feature. In a blog post published this morning, LinkedIn said it would modify the feature so that calendar events were synced, leaving meeting details untouched. LinkedIn uses calendar data collected in its servers to match people up, but explained that the data is securely sent via SSL and that the calendar information itself isn't revealed. Also, addressing the Times' concern that this data was being transmitted without user's knowledge, LinkedIn said it would add a more explicit description about what calendar information it accessed from smartphones.
MOG, Ford Partner On Voice-Controlled App For Cars
On-demand music service MOG has partnered with Ford on a voice-controlled MOG app for several 2012 models. The app, which has a monthly subscription fee of $9.99, lets MOG-subscribed drivers use Ford's existing SYNC AppLink voice control technology to monitor playlists created from the service's 15-million song catalog. (For example, saying "top songs" would automatically queue up the current Billboard Top 50 list.) MOG has been partnering with automakers for a while, through maker-specific apps, such as the one BMW offers, and car audio businesses such as Harman's Aha Radio, which integrates with Honda and Subaru vehicles. MOG has been the most aggressive pursuer of vehicle integration within the on-demand music services, including Spotify and Rdio. Rumors of a possible MOG acquisition by HTC's Beats Electronics were quashed back in March, and MOG has since launched apps for Windows and the iPad.
TV Streamers And Game Of Thrones Fans Rally Behind TakeMyMoneyHBO.com
Jake Caputo, website designer, developer, Chicago dweller, video streamer, wants HBO's attention. On his new website, Caputo's message is clear: "We pirate Game of Thrones, we use our friend's HBOGO login to watch True Blood… Please HBO, offer a standalone HBOGO streaming service and Take My Money!" On TakeMyMoneyHBO.com you can type in the amount that you'd pay for a streaming-only HBO subscription (to legally watch shows like Game of Thrones as new episodes are released) and tweet it. Caputo's message is a popular one--in three hours since it launched last night, the website already had 21,000 visits and the stream of tweets continues. Millions of TV watchers now prefer to stream their shows and cut their cable subscription, but cable companies like HBO and NBC offer streaming content only for subscribers who have paid for a regular cable subscription. HBO's Game of Thrones, hugely popular but unstreamable, is on its way to top of the Most Pirated 2012 list--because GOT fans, loyal though they may be, don't want to pay HBO's stiff monthly subscription fees. It's yet another indication that video streamers are happy to pay for the content they consume, if they're given a choice about how they do so.
Airtime, Photographing You While You Chat, Faces Privacy Questions
Sean Parker's new video chat enterprise has found itself in a media storm at launch, but there's now a genuine bolt of lightning sparking in the midst of it: Accusations from Forbesthat Airtime secretly snaps photos of you while you're web chatting with a stranger, with your own webcam, and then uploads them to its servers along with recordings of the conversation. Why would this be? To ensure site safety, giving moderators the chance to look at evidence if any one user flags a complaint against another. Essentially Airtime is trying to avoid the sexual problems that beset Chatroulette, but sees this system as part of the process. The question is if this bothers modern Net users, or those who particularly desire privacy to be maintained--and raises issues of security concerning how the data is stored at Airtime. Google and Skype do not use similar technology, though they are less centered around casual group chats than Airtime.
Airtime's been in touch through its representatives to update us on this news. According to the site it does not record audio or video, but it does take "random, periodic snapshots of conversations between users who don't already know each other," much as we'd said it does. The company says it's a "policy that we are proud of and believes serves our users well."
Mobile Advertisers Evade Apple's Privacy Code To Track iOS Users
Despite Apple's attempts to enforce privacy standards on their mobile devices, ad networks are finding new ways to track and target ads to smartphone users. The Wall Street Journal has learned that ad networks are using new ways to gain personal information about people's iPhones via identifiers in the wireless tracking hardware, or through a system known as OpenUDID that uses that copy-paste function. Both ID tracking methods circumvent Apple's privacy push last year, in which the company asked advertisers to stop using a (different) unique ID on iPhones to track customers.
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=================> Developed Markets <===============
Payroll data and jobless claims suggest a weakening U.S. recovery
WASHINGTON - U.S. job growth braked sharply for a third straight month in May and the unemployment rate rose for the first time in nearly a year, raising chances of further monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve to support the sputtering recovery.
Labor-market data indicate that the U.S. recovery might be losing momentum. Private employers hired 133,000 workers in May, a slight improvement over April's 113,000, payroll processor ADP said. Initial claims for unemployment benefits increased 10,000 last week, the Labor Department said.
Strong U.S. car sales start to show signs of weakening
Rising auto sales have been a powerful force driving the recovery of the U.S. economy this year but new data suggests that trend may be running out of steam. Based on data through the middle of this month, new car sales are expected to be up 6% in May, compared with a year earlier. The forecast is well below the double-digit growth the industry saw most of this year.
Drop in pending home sales in U.S. catches economists by surprise
Pending sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. dropped to a four-month low in April, falling 5.5%, the National Association of Realtors said. Economists polled by Reuters expected the trade group's Pending Home Sales Index to rise 0.1%.
Demand for 10-year U.S. Treasurys still outstrips supply
After four years of $1 trillion budget deficits, investors' demand for 10-year U.S. Treasury securities still far exceeds the amount the government is ready to sell. Such debt yields 24 basis points more than the average for debt issued by AAA-rated nations, including Germany and Australia.
Data shows Britain's recession is deeper than first estimated
The latest economic data shows that the U.K. recession is more severe than the initial estimate suggested. The Office for National Statistics said the economy contracted 0.3% in the first three months of 2012, rather than 0.2% decline it estimated in April.
The Economist Analysis: Limited federalism offers best future for EU
The euro is worth saving and the best way to accomplish that goal is for the EU to embrace a limited form of federalism with centralized bank supervision and mutualization of some, not all, of the region's debt, according to the Economist. "The euro zone's problem is not the debt's size, but its fragmented structure," the magazine notes. "Taken as a whole, the stock of euro-zone public debt is 87% of GDP, compared with over 100% in America."
Europe's leveraged-loan defaults could hit 25%, Moody's warns
As Europe's economy continues to go downhill, 25% of leveraged-buyout firms with debt maturing by the end of 2015 might default on their obligations, Moody's Investors Service said in a report. "The 2014-2015 refinancing risk remains large and worrisome given our expectations of protracted macroeconomic weakness, combined with the weak average credit quality of this universe," according to the report.
Spain's cost of borrowing reaches record high
The risk premium demanded by investors to hold Spanish debt climbed to a record high after Bankia said it needs a capital infusion from the government. The spread above Germany's 10-year debt for Spain's comparable bond reached 5.1 percentage points, the highest since the euro was launched.
Analysis: Save Spain's banks now, and reduce its deficit later
The Spanish government and European leaders must temporarily set aside the challenge of reducing the nation's budget deficit and direct all effort toward preventing a collapse of Spain's financial system, according to The Economist. "Time to solve Spain's debt crisis is running out," the magazine notes. "Doing so requires a radical rethink in Madrid, but above all in Brussels and Berlin." The Economist
Germans ease austerity pace for Spain, markets in turmoil
BERLIN/DUBLIN - EU paymaster Germany softened its drive for austerity across the euro zone on Friday, agreeing to allow Spain more time to cut its deficit while its battles a deepening bank crisis, capital flight and recession.
Euro zone unemployment hits record high, seen rising
BRUSSELS - Euro zone unemployment has hit a record high, and job losses are likely to keep climbing as the bloc's devastating debt crisis eats away at businesses' ability to hire workers while indebted governments continue to cut staff.
(Reuters) - Moody's cuts Greek domestic rating ceiling on euro exit risk
NEW YORK - Rating agency Moody's Investors Service said it had lowered its ratings ceiling on Greek domestic debt issuers due to the rising risk of the country exiting the euro zone, but added it did not consider that the most likely scenario for the country.
Switzerland may impose capital controls if nations leave eurozone
Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan said Switzerland is reviewing the possibility of adopting currency controls to limit capital inflows, in the event that countries start pulling out of the eurozone. Jordan said he doesn't believe the eurozone will be torn apart by the current debt crisis.
U.S. has limited exposure to downturn in Europe and China
Economic problems in Europe and China are likely to harm those regions more than the U.S. China, which is seeing slowing economic growth, has been a major buyer of European exports but plays a smaller part in the U.S. economy. China bought $178 billion worth of products from Europe last year, according to Comtrade, compared with $123 billion from the U.S.
Germany sells $5.8B worth of its first zero-percent bond
Confirming its safe-haven status, Germany sold its first bond that provides no regular return. The government sold $5.8 billion worth with a zero-percent coupon. The debt priced at a small discount to face value, giving investors an average yield of 0.07%.
Fitch lowers Japanese credit rating
Fitch Ratings downgraded Japan's sovereign credit rating for the first time since 2001. The result, A+, is still investment grade and slightly higher than ratings for troubled Spain and Italy. Fitch rebuked Tokyo for not doing enough to reduce debt. Public debt will approach 240% of gross domestic product by year-end.
Japan - 1Q/2012 GDP 1st preliminary result
First preliminary GDP estimates for 1Q 2012 show real growth of +4.1% (qoq, annualized). This came in above prior expectations (Bloomberg consensus: +3.5), supported by resilient consumption and rebuilding investment in the earthquake devastated area, but it also includes a temporary rebound from the widespread flooding in Thailand around the end of last year. This suggests the growth rate in Q2 will normalize to a slower pace. By component, private consumption pushed up headline growth by +2.6pp and private inventory a further +1.7pp. Also, public investment surged as expected, contributing +1.0pp to GDP growth. On the other hand, capex dropped significantly with a pullback from the spurt in 4Q/2011 (-14.8% after +22.3%), confirming the pace of recovery in capex is quite slow on average.
Japan posts wider-than-expected trade deficit for April
Japan's trade deficit last month was larger than expected, as rising energy costs drove up the value of imports, while sales to China, Japan's biggest customer, declined. The deficit reached $6.5 billion, compared with $6 billion in April 2011.
================> Emerging Markets <=================
Southeast Asia's solid economic growth rides over global woes
(Reuters) - Southeast Asia is showing stronger signs of resilience to global turbulence than the rest of Asia as buoyant domestic spending offsets struggling exports, while low debt levels give governments more room than their cash-strapped counterparts in the West to deliver stimulus.
"Countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, they continue to invest heavily in infrastructure to meet demands of people and investors, so we're growing at double-digit rates there," said Stuart Dean, chief executive of GE operations in the Association of South East Asian Nations.
(Credit Suisse) - China: May headline PMI
The headline PMI for May fell 2.9 pp to 50.4, against the consensus of 52. This set of data is very weak, much worse than much worse than our expectation and possibly also the government's expectation. The new orders index dropped sharply by 4.7 pp to 49.8, indicating that the manufacturing sector faces a recessionary threat
The PMI input prices index collapsed, down 10 pp to 44.8. This suggests that the margins of the upstream industries have eroded quickly, and that a deflationary threat may be emerging.
We are worried about deflation and upstream industries' cash flow. Growth should be around 7% now, but a hard landing is not our central case, due to stimuli and consumption.
We expect more pro-growth policies to be launched. We expect a cut in the lending rate by 25 bps (without lowering deposit rates) within the next month or so, along with a 50 bps cut in the RRR (on top of our call for another two cuts). We expect a fast track approach in approving local investment projects. Beijing may deliver the funding from the central government quickly.
India: Jan-March 2012 Real GDP (4Q FY12)
India's quarterly growth of 5.3 was well below the market consensus of 6.1% and softer than anything seen during the global financial crisis when GDP growth bottomed at 5.8%. It will probably send shivers down the spines of senior coalition politicians, who will no doubt be putting pressure on the Reserve Bank to react and react aggressively.
Output breakdown: The output breakdown of GDP showed widespread weakness with agricultural growth slowing to just 1.7% (from 2.7%), industrial growth down to 2.2% (from 2.6%) and services at 7.9% (from 8.9%). The last of these represents the biggest difference with the global financial crisis period when services growth remained above 9%. This in turn signals the more domestic nature of the current downturn.
India - Govt allows foreign individuals to buy debt
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI - India will allow foreign retail investors to buy local corporate bonds for the first time in its latest move to bolster capital inflows and support the shaky rupee, though the action was seen as too limited to boost the local currency.
Korea: April Industrial Production and May CPI
Industrial production was flat from a year ago in April, but rose 0.9% MoM. Although the mild sequential production gain was a positive surprise, the chance of seeing production activity improving visibly in 2Q12 is still small. The producer shipment index fell 1.1% YoY in April. On domestic demand, consumer sales growth remained slow at 0.4% YoY. Investment conditions saw some moderate improvement, but construction activity remained weak. Headline CPI Inflation stayed moderate at 2.5% YoY in May (the same as in April), in line with the consensus expectation. Inflation is a lesser threat to the Korean economy at this juncture.
As the external economy remains weak and Korea's domestic demand conditions seem to have faltered lately, the downside risk to Korea's growth has increased. It's expected that the BoK will keep the policy base rate unchanged at 3.25% at its 8 June meeting.
Philippines: 1Q 2012 GDP
Real GDP growth for 1Q 2012 was 6.4% yoy - significantly above the market estimate of 4.3%. The official seasonally adjusted GDP estimate showed a 2.5% non-annualized quarter on quarter expansion. 4Q 2011 GDP growth was also revised up to 4% from 3.7% yoy earlier.
Domestic demand was strong, thanks to government spending. Apart from exports, government spending growth was another important contributor to GDP growth, recording a 24% yoy gain in 1Q 2012 after a 7.6% yoy rise in 4Q 2011. Private consumption growth continued to be robust at 6.6% yoy, compared with 6.4% in 4Q 2011. While public construction rose 62% yoy, a slowdown in private construction dampened the gain in fixed asset investment, which grew 3.3% yoy (from a 2.4% contraction in 4Q 2011).
Thailand: April Industrial Production
Industrial production rose 0.5% yoy in April, significantly below the market's expectation. The March figure was revised up marginally to -2.7% yoy from -3.2%. The weakness in industrial production is not Thai specific. We also saw industrial production for April coming in below market estimates in Singapore and Taiwan last week. This suggests that the key drag on production is likely to be weak global trade demand and potential inventory corrections.
Brazil brings key interest rate to record-low 8.5%
Brazil's central bank cut the benchmark Selic interest rate to a record-low 8.5% and said it is prepared for further reduction. Struggling to restart economic growth, Brazil has lowered interest rates 4 percentage points since August, more than any other Group of 20 economy.
Rupee fall won't hurt India's ratings: Moody's
Reuters Market Eye - Moody's Investors Service says the depreciating rupee will only have a "limited" impact on India's sovereign ratings, as only 7 percent of total government debt is placed overseas, comprising 5 pct of gross domestic product.
South Africa: Low savings and high dependence on European capital
South Africa's savings rate remains low at 16% of GDP, half the emerging market average. The country's savings rate also remains well below its investment rate, keeping it dependent on foreign capital inflows. There are a number of European-specific risks inherent in South Africa's external funding needs and sources of funding.
First, Europe remains the second most important regional destination for South Africa's exports, including manufactured goods. Second, Europe remains South Africa's largest source of foreign capital, 34% of which are volatile portfolio investments. Third, Europe remains the largest destination for South African foreign investment, 53% of which is in portfolio non-banking equity securities.
These three relationships pose risks for South Africa's current account, capital flows and the rand. According to our estimates, the rand's real effective exchange rate (REER) is now 10% weak relative to its fair value. The rand looks likely to remain undervalued for the rest of the year, in our view, as 'safe-haven' flows into US dollar assets continue.
Should you get rid of your equity investments or shift money to some other safe haven Madhu T has some suggestions for the worried investors
To say the investors are worried is an understatement. In fact, they are really worried sick.According to financial advisors,a sizeable number of investors are on the verge of hitting the panic button.Market experts are faced with a deluge of queries from their harried clients these days: Is penny pinching the only way to tackle the current problems Can I stop my SIP now and resume it later when my expenses come down and the situation in the market improves Can I get rid of my equity investments and shift the money to some safe place Yes,to some extent it is true that people are really worried.Though not in large numbers,they are really nervous about the whole situation the market hasnt delivered in the last three to four years;the macro economic scenario is depressing and they dont see the government taking any concrete step to salvage the situation, says D Sundararajan,investment consultant,Trendy Investment,a wealth management firm.This is quite a testing time for many investors.They really dont have any confidence left because of the economic climate.They also have to deal with higher cost of living and higher EMIs, says a mutual fund official who doesnt want to be named.However,I would like to tell investors not to take hasty decisions.They should really think it through or discuss it with their financial advisor before taking any major decision.
DO THINGS NATURALLY
Many experts believe that some investors may be overreacting to the current scenario.The trouble with most people is that they believe they are witnessing the worst scenario in history.If you ask some seasoned investors or even your parents,they would tell you they have seen worse, says a wealth manager,who doesnt want to go on record.My advice is to do things which you would naturally in an adverse situation.For example,your expenses are going up.Instead of finding ways to fund the extra expenses,you should always try to find ways to reduce it.Cutting down on your investments to fund your extra expenses would be a huge mistake, he adds.Hemant Rustagi,CEO,Wiseinvest,says the market always surprises and this time will not be an exception.Mostly,the market springs a surprise when everyone is almost on the verge of giving up.I am telling people the same thing that they shouldnt write it off in a haste, he says.
TEXT BOOK RULES DONT WORK
Investment experts confess that the golden rules from text books like --- have an asset allocation;stick to it all the time;get on with your plan,irrespective of the market and so on --- are not having the desired impact on the clients this time.It is becoming more and more difficult to convince them.We try to counsel them,but if they are really worried,we help them redraw their asset allocation to equity, says Sundararajan.It is done on a case to case basis.If the investor understands the current scenario and is not unduly worried about the equity investments,we ask him to continue with his plan.If the investors are really bothered and dont want to take any chance at all,we allow them to reduce their equity exposure.For example,we have reduced the equity exposure of a number of people nearing retirement or in the age group of 50-60 years substantially by 20-25 %.We have shifted the money to short duration funds as they didnt want to take the interest rate risk, says Sundarajan.Many experts like Sundararajan are asking their clients to be cautious about their new investments in equity as there is no clarity on interest rates,inflation and governments response to challenges faced by the economy.
DONT PROVE THEM RIGHT
Kartik Jhaveri,director of wealth management firm Transcend Consulting,says his only request to nervous investors is: please dont prove your critics right.If they get out now,they will prove to the world that retail investors always lose money in the market.This is because most of them get out when the market is not doing good,and miss the opportunity to make it big when the market recovers.Or they will get into the market when the rally is almost over and stay in invested for a couple of years and start cribbing that they didnt make any money, he says.Prove the world wrong this time.Dont stop your investments and be there to witness the birth and end of the rally, he adds.Experts like him want investors to remember that their investing programme is done with a certain purpose in mind,and all they have to be sure about is that they are using the correct way to create wealth.Understand that there will be different business cycle every five or seven years and there will be rallies as well as big falls.If you act in haste,you will be disappointed, says Jhaveri
 |
| NASDAQ Exchange |
How online trading system works?
Here I am going to explain how online brokers and trading system works and how they make profit irrespective of order market movements:
Online brokers provide you a very good service, that a customer can trade anywhere using the computer. Nowadays it is easy to trade stocks online, but it is also complicated means how transactions take place and how brokers and other market makers make money out of placing customers' orders.
Let's consider an example of a customer, who has chosen Scottrade as an online broker for trading. He puts an order in computer to buy a hundred shares of IBM at market price and 2 second after he receives conformation that you have successfully bought 100 shares of IBM at $ 125.15 current price.
If we think how did the order place?, where did it go and who is the seller of 100 shares of IBM? Here are some Math starts.
How It All Happens
Scottrade is a discount broker means he is not directly selling or buying
the shares. It is using service of market makers like Knight Capital, UBS, Citadel and Citigroup and route the electronic orders to them and it receives payments for those orders. Where to route the order is decided based on criteria like speed, price, and quality of the service.
Let;s say Scottrade routing that order to UBS as it has selected it based on above criteria. UBS sells Scottrade 100 shares immediately and order was filled and customer owns the IBM shares at $125.15.
Now, how UBS deal with that order as it has already sells those shares of IBM to Scottrade. UBS and other market makers have two options as they can look up their order inventory and try to find a same order of buying 100 shares of IBM and match off its 100 shares of sell order with it. If they can't find the order than they sent an order out to an exchange or in dark pool ( But they have to pay for that ) to buy those shares or most of the times they stay short sell side and wait for a buy order to be in the system. To remain short sell side means they have sold the shares and waiting to price drop a little to buy shares again and turn it in to their profit.
If UBS finds a buy order a penny less means at $ 125.14 and it executes the order then UBS has earned 1 cent profit per share means 1$ for 100 shares order and it pays Scottrade a tenth of a dollar means 10 cents per dollar profit, so it is earning 90 cents. Although figure looks very small, but when you apply this for so many trades and a huge volumes then it turns out to be a huge profit.
Indeed, these types of trades do happen millions of times a day: retail customers interact with online brokers (AmeriTrade, Schwab, ETrade, Scottrade, etc.) who route orders to market makers, who in turn match orders against their own supply or interact with exchanges (NYSE, Arca, NASDAQ, BATS, Direct Edge).
Pump Up the Volume: Connecting Buyers and Sellers
Now let's see how this order might interact with other players. Vanguard is one of the largest mutual fund company in the US and it trades more than 10 million shares of a stock a day, including many shares of IBM. Sauter is Vanguard's Chief Investment Officer
The goal of Sauter and his trading desk is to get the lowest execution cost, and he has several choices when he has to buy or sell stocks like IBM. He can execute a particularly large order manually by directing all or parts of it to specific trading venues. Or, he can bundle orders to buy and sell many different stocks into a "basket" that will be executed as a single computer program.
He can also choose to use an an algorithm and a smart order routing system, which will likely chop up an order to buy or sell a specific stock (like IBM) into small pieces (100 orders of 100 shares each, for example), and will then direct those orders to whatever venue offers the best combination of speed and price.
So it's likely that part of any order to buy or sell IBM will end up in different locations: at a market maker like Knight Capital or UBS, exchanges like the NYSE, NASDAQ, or BATS, or dark pools like Liquidnet.
Clearly, Sauter's trade is considerably more complicated than a customer's buying IBM at Scottrade.
Sauter may include specific instructions on how the order is to be executed. For example, some mutual fund and pension fund managers want to make sure their trades are executed at the Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP), which is the dollar value of all the shares traded in that stock divided by the volume. This is a measure to ensure that price execution is at least as good as the average.
Sauter says he has an even higher standard for his orders. He wants to make sure that the stock is bought or sold at the price he or his fund managers want to buy or sell it at, not the market price. If a Vanguard fund manager wants to sell IBM at $128.60, for example, he may want his broker to make sure he sells at that price, and not, say, at $128.58 (this is called "implementation shortfall").
Other factors beside speed and price may also influence the decision of asset managers. Some may want to send order flow to a specific firm in exchange for services—analyst research, trader commentary, access to conferences and meetings. In exchange, the firm may provide execution to an asset manager at very low cost.
Tradeworx, a high frequency trading company located in New Jersey. Company trades using statistical arbitrage, where traders are short one security and long another, based on historical performance.
For example, IBM historically trades in a certain relationship with the S&P 500. When it trades above that relationship, Tradeworx system may put in large orders to sell IBM and buy the S&P (all in a fraction of a second) assuming the relationship may revert to its historic mean.
Company trades 50 to 100 million shares of stock a day, including many trades in IBM, Sometimes firm has traded 21 million shares, for a net profit of $7,000.
Tradeworx and other high-frequency traders execute their trades through direct access. The computers are linked to servers very close to those of the major exchanges. Why? Because the pricing inefficiencies last for only a fraction of a second, so speed is paramount.
Bottom Line: Technology, Liquidity, Complexity
So what is happening here? Three customers—Retail Investor, who wants to buy 100 shares of IBM, Sauter, a mutual fund manager who will be buying or selling tens of thousands of shares or more of IBM, and Tradeworx, a high frequency trader who will also be buying and selling thousands (perhaps millions) of shares of IBM—are all interacting in different spaces: in the computers of market makers who match off the orders, on exchanges, and in alternative trading systems like dark pools.
All three of these orders could interact with each other. All three of these customers, in their own way, are adding liquidity—but there are a lot more places for them to trade.
How did things get so complicated? You can blame it on the relentless march of technology and a decision by the SEC to encourage competition among exchanges.
( Source: CNBC )
The service is web-based, with no app to download or registration required, and it taps into the same social graph as Facebook. The idea is to offer a friction-less way to video chat on any platform both with friends and with "people like you" outside your network.
What is Airtime?
Airtime is a new live video service from the creators of Napster. Airtime is many things, but above all, it’s the following:
The best and fastest way to video chat with your friends on any platform. No download required, just login with Facebook and begin video chatting with your friends immediately, right in your browser.
Live content sharing with friends. Everyone on Airtime is both participant and performer. Play YouTube videos for your friends and see their reactions live.
Discover people like you. Break outside your social graph and find people like you based on shared interests.
Airtime is a new live video service from the creators of Napster. Airtime is many things, but above all, it’s the following:
The best and fastest way to video chat with your friends on any platform. No download required, just login with Facebook and begin video chatting with your friends immediately, right in your browser.
Live content sharing with friends. Everyone on Airtime is both participant and performer. Play YouTube videos for your friends and see their reactions live.
Discover people like you. Break outside your social graph and find people like you based on shared interests.
Airtime is drawing a lot of comparisons to Chatroulette-a service to chat with strangers that was the startup du jour back in 2010. Parker says he's aware of concerns, and that Airtime's top focus is "safety." Plus, the fact that the service is built on Facebook means that "the system knows who you are," which should help defeat the flashers which dragged down Chatroulette.
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| Lee Enterpeises |
The stock is soaring in after-hours trading, up $0.29 to $1.44 as of 4:40p ET. That's an increase of more than 25 percent.
The Lee stake is tiny by Berkshire standards, but its particularly interesting because Buffett's company had wanted to keep it secret.
In its May 15 filing listing its U.S. stock portfolio as of the end of the first quarter, Berkshire had said some information was being kept confidential.
Usually, the SEC grants Berkshire's requests for secrecy, but this time it didn't.
Tonight's filing says the request for "confidential treatment" was denied on May 25.
It's a continuation of Buffett's local newspaper play. Lee owns 49 daily newspapers and 300 weekly newspapers. Most of them are in midsize markets, but it also publishes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
In November, Berkshire bought Buffett's home-town newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald.
More recently, Berkshire bought 63 newspaper from Media General for $142 million.
Buffett has said that the newspaper business overall is in trouble, but he's optimistic about small to mid-sized newspapers that provide local news and information available nowhere else.
In a letter to all of Berkshire's newspapers less than two months ago, Buffett wrote that he's looking for more papers to buy. "We will favor towns and cities with a strong sense of community, comparable to the 26 in which we will soon operate. If a citizenry cares little about its community, it will eventually care little about its newspaper... It's your job to make your paper indispensable to anyone who cares about what is going on in your city or town."
