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OPEN-OUTCRY trading is supposed to be a quaint, outdated practice, rapidly being replaced by sleeker, cheaper electronic systems

admin2014-09-18  49
问题      OPEN-OUTCRY trading is supposed to be a quaint, outdated practice, rapidly being replaced by sleeker, cheaper electronic systems. Try telling that to the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the world’s largest commodities exchange. On November 1st the NYMEX opened an open-outcry pit in Dublin to handle Brent crude futures, the benchmark contract for pricing two-thirds of the world’s oil.
     The NYMEX is trying to snatch liquidity from London’s International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), which trades the most Brent contracts; the New York Exchange has hitherto concentrated on West Texas Intermediate, an American benchmark grade. The new pit is a response to the IPE’s efforts to modernise. On the same day as NYMEX traders started shouting Brent prices in Dublin, the IPE did away with its morning open-outcry session: now such trades must be electronic, or done in the pit after lunch.
     The New York Exchange claims that customers, such as hedge funds or energy companies, prefer open-outcry because it allows for more liquidity. Although most other exchanges are heading in the opposite direction, in commodity markets such as the NYMEX, pressure from "locals" — self-employed traders — is helping to prop up open-outcry, although some reckon that customers pay up to five times as much as with electronic systems. Even the IPE has no plans to abolish its floor. Only last month it signed a lease, lasting until 2011, for its trading floor in London.
      Dublin’s new pit is "showing promise", says Rob Laughlin, a trader with Man’ Financial, despite a few technical glitches. On its first day it handled 5, 726 lots of Brent ( each lot, or contract, is 1,000 barrels), over a third of the volume in the IPE’s new morning electronic session. By the year’s end, predicts Mr. Laughlin, it should be clear whether the venture will be viable. It would stand a better chance if it moved to London. It may yet: it started in Ireland because regulatory approval could be obtained faster there than in Britain.
     Ultimately, having both exchanges offering similar contracts will be unsustainable. Stealing liquidity from an established market leader, as the NYMEX is trying to do, is a hard task. Eurex, Europe’s largest futures exchange, set up shop in Chicago this year, intending to grab American Treasury-bond contracts from the Chicago Board of Trade. It has made little headway. And the NYMEX has dabbled in Brent contracts before, without success.
     Given the importance of liquidity in exchanges, why do the IPE and the NYMEX not band together? There have been merger talks before, and something might yet happen. Some say that the freewheeling NYMEX and the more staid IPE could never mix. For now, in any case, the two exchanges will slug it out — across the Irish Sea as well as across the Atlantic.  
Which statements is true as to the description of the NYMEX and IPE?
选项 A、They are both adopting open-outcry trading practice.
B、They are both making efforts to modernize the trading practice.
C、They are competing in the oil trading market.
D、They are competing to take the largest share in world’s commodity trade.
答案C
解析 推断题。文章第二段第一句说大部分布伦特合约都是在伦敦国际石油交易所(IPE)进行交易的；纽约商品交易所试图抢走IPE的交易量；本段第二句指出，新开张的交易所回应了伦敦国际石油交易所进行的现代化努力。由此看来，这两家交易所是竞争石油交易的对手，故C正确。
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