Currency

International Currency Symbols
Oanda Corp Official WebSite

"Continuous Linked Settlement is a process by which a number of the world's largest banks manage settlement of foreign exchange amongst themselves (and their customers and other third-parties)."
- WikiPedia Entry
- Official CIS Site

WikiPedia Entry on the Forex Market

PodCasts

Green Light Investor / Advisor Analyst

Mark Mobius - Templeton AM - Emerging Markets

Commanding Heights PBS Interview

Nassim Nicolas Taleb

Lebanese-American, trained as a statistician, traded for various high-profile financial houses, became independently wealthy due to profits made on trades during the 1987 crash, has subsequently written a number of books on the tendency of modern quantitative finance to underestimate the frequency of rare events, with disastrous consequences.

Library of Economics & Freedom, interview by Russ Roberts

another podcast

NYTimes article by Malcolm Gladwell on Taleb and Victor Niederhoffer.

ClearStream

WikiPedia Entry Summary:

"Clearstream Banking S.A. (CB) is the custody and settlement division of Deutsche Börse, based in Luxembourg.

It was created in January 2000 through the merger of Cedel International and Deutsche Börse Clearing, part of the Deutsche Börse Group, which owns the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Cedel, established in 1971, specialized in clearance and settlement. In 1996 it obtained a bank license. In July 2002 Deutsche Börse purchased the remaining 50% of Clearstream International for €1.6 billion. Deutsche Börse's strategy is to be a vertical securities silo, providing facilities for the front and back ends of securities trading. In 2008 Clearstream contributed €489 million to Deutsche Börse's total Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) of €1,5 billion. It handled 114 million transactions, and was custodian of securities worth €10,6 trillion (Deutsche Boerse Annual Report, 2008).

In Révélation$ (2001), by investigative reporter Denis Robert and ex-Clearstream banker Ernest Backes, Clearstream was accused of being an international platform for money laundering and tax evasion via an illegal system of secret accounts (the "Clearstream Affair"). M Robert was sued and sentenced eight times by the French courts for defamation (Paris court of appeal, October 16, 2008)

In Spring 2004, a "Second Clearstream Affair" began, which attracted more attention in 2006. Peripheral to the primary Clearstream Affair, it accused several French political figures, industrial leaders, and members of the secret services of maintaining secret accounts at Clearstream, which allegedly were used to transfer kickbacks in a France–Taiwan frigates scandal. In this affair M Robert together with M de Villepin, Gergorin, lahoud and Bourges will face trial in September 2009"

BBC Article : France-Taiwan Arms-Deal Scandal

---
In 1983, Clearstream director Gérard Soisson was found dead in Corsica, just prior to the publicization of the fact that Clearstream had been moving money for Vatican/Italian mob/US proxy/Masonic bank Banco Ambrosiano, itself at the centre of scandal as a result of high-profile murders and financial losses.

4 Financials Constitute Majority of NYSE August Volume

Bank of America
CitiGroup
Freddie Mac
Fannie Mae

Daily Finance
Yahoo Finance

Ryan Vlastelica - Tue Aug 25 2009 - Reuters:

Citigroup (C.N), Bank of America (BAC.N), Freddie Mac FRE.N and Fannie Mae FNM.N have dominated trading recently as each has more than doubled in price from 2009 lows.

On Monday and on Tuesday morning, the four accounted for more than 40 percent of composite volume on the NYSE. Some attributed this to bets on hoped-for economic improvement and ongoing government support, but others said the volume was due to speculation in popular names with low share prices.

Algorithmics - Quantitative Risk Analysis in RSA

Algorithmics RSA
Company WebSite
Braby's Entry
mBendi Entry
Hot Frog Entry - Doesn't Work


Toronto/London/Johannesburg - April 9, 2008 - Algorithmics today announced that Nedbank has received Advanced IRB approval for credit risk capital requirements under Basel II from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). This makes Nedbank one of only three banks in South Africa to be granted A-IRB approval for credit risk, the first banks to be granted this status by the SARB.

alleged gold market manipulation by goldman-sachs

SEEKING ALPHA

"There is no other leveraged commodity market where short sellers increase their positions, materially, as the price rises, and increase them even more when prices are exploding, except gold and silver. The reason traders don’t normally do that is that it exposes short sellers to unlimited liability and risk. Yet, in both March and July 2008, and on countless occasions over the past 21 years, vast numbers of new gold and silver short positions were temporarily opened up, with the position holders seemingly unconcerned about the fact that precious metals had just risen exponentially, and that there was a very real potential they would bankrupt themselves with unlimited upside potential. Normal traders would not expose themselves to such unlimited risks.

I conclude, therefore, that over the last 21 years or so, “fake” precious metals supply in the form of promises of future delivery have habitually been increased when prices increase until increased “supply” managed to overwhelm increased demand, leading to a temporary price collapse. This is compounded by the fact that the futures prices on COMEX tend to dictate the “official” report price for the precious metals elsewhere."

article

---

Interestingly, gold's recent breaking through of the USD 1000 mark is followed by an announcement by the IMF that it plans to sell gold equal to 1/8 of it's total reserves.

IOL Article 2009-09-21

Jim Simons - Renaissiance Tech

Jim Simons is an American mathematician hedge-fund baron - controlling quantitative funds under the banner of Renaissance Technologies Corp.

Renaissance' flag-ship vehicle is the Medallion fund.

Articles
DistressedVolatility
NYTimes

Bloomberg Bio - The Code Breaker

Jan 2011 - Simons speaks at MIT

Jim Rogers - Quantum Fund Co-Founder

Jim Rogers is a co-founder of the Soros affiliated Quantum Fund.