Bursa Malaysia Derivatives - 3

Technology has made a deep impact on futures trading, open out-cry trading on crude palm oil futures trading generated an average much below 2000 contracts a day when I was still a runner in the cpo futures trading pit in KLCE but electronic trading can help generating more than 2000 contracts in just a few seconds in cpo futures trading presently.

I still remember the chaos day that open out-cry cpo futures trading volume hit 5000 contracts when I was a trader in a newly set up futures company called KAF-Refco, we did 3000 contracts that day! Since the trading copy, as mentioned in previous post, had its limitation by not exceeding 20 contracts per copy (under the KLCE rules), just imagine how many copies would have been raised for the 5000 contracts traded that day! We floor traders had to sort out all the trading copies for more than 3 hours after the cpo futures market was closed at 6pm! 

30,000 open positions was basically at the high end in open out-cry trading but electronic trading has the open positions hit 280,000 before coming down to about 180,000 when this post is written.

As we all know that Locals in cpo futures trading are the speculators but also the market makers. In open out-cry trading, they were the pits traders jumping up and down "insanely" in outsiders' eyes who stood at the 5th floor Gallery watching down the big trading floor on all kinds of hand signals and body gestures in a very noisy environment in DayaBumi Complex.

Today, there is no more such a marketplace. Locals sit in cosy rooms finger press on their keyboards to do trades... no longer jumping up and down with hand signals!

Bursa Malaysia Derivatives - 2

The "Locals" or the so called licensed speculators were given seats by the "ex" Bursa Malaysia Derivatives through the purchasing of trading permits or "memberships" at RM10,000 or RM30,000 in the 1990s when the BMD was mainly from the two separated entities, KLCE and KLOFFE. I was a Local in CPO Futures trading and did pay the RM10,000 to start trading with the trading permit after being interviewed and approved by the Board from KLCE.

Just for a record, the KLCE was last located in DayaBumi Complex near Dataran Merdeka before the open-outcry trading system was ended in December 2001. Here is the sample contract form issued by all floor traders in the cpo futures trading pit. It showed the Alpha code of Seller and Buyer while stating all the contract month in the International code format, price and size with time stamped to confirm the trade was done at the particular time. As shown below, the month codes and trading copies with time stamped on 27 Dec 2001:

	MONTH	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
	CODE	F	G	H	J	K	M	N	Q	U	V	X	Z

KLCE trading contract copies

The yellow copy was the seller's copy and seller must do time stamping once a trade was traded and issued a carbonized trading form that contained total five copies. First original white copy for KLCE, two duplicated yellow copies (for seller's clearing broker and seller) and two duplicated red copies (buyer's clearing broker and buyer).

The "Locals" did enjoy low transaction cost and even zero transaction cost on scratch trades which meant  when they buy and sell price at same price in different transaction in same trading day, they paid zero fee. These scratch trades did save a lot of trading cost especially for locals who active in spread trading while helped increasing the liquidity of the cpo futures market.

Bursa Malaysia Derivatives - 1

Bursa Malaysia Derivatives has become one of the international market place on futures trading benchmark in our global economic system especially on the crude palm oil commodity futures trading which was lunched in early 1980s. By doing a Google search on KLCE, MME, COMMEX, KLOFFE, MDEX and BMD, it is believed that readers will be able to find the history and the "evolution" of Bursa Malaysia Derivatives.

However, the Exchange itself and the speculators who help run them remain largely misunderstood, general thinking, they served no useful function other than a gambling pool being specially set up for those tyranny big boys!

In my first thought, this was actually considered to be a meeting place for gamblers - professional gamblers !!! It was especially true when I first stepped in the pit where the open-outcry crude palm oil futures trading floor located in the Dayabumi Complex near Merdeka Square, Kuala Lumpur in mid 1990s.  

The Exchange had since been transformed into a sophisticated electronic trading market place (year 2000) and partially owned by one of the world largest and busiest Exchanges. You may call it a licensed casino, but the Exchange itself is the real free and "regulated" market place where speculators serve a very important function helping the Exchange to be a well-known "licensed casino", making sure every buyer and seller is part of a pair like socks we wear that creates volumes.

With all the sounds, friends and chaotic trading activities I had missed in KLCE in 1990s, I wish there is a time machine that bring me and you back to learn the "hand signals" to make a trade like other speculators did - they were the "Locals". 

They are the speculators with a mindset of high risk high return, make fortunes or end up broke!