Is this for REAL?

[Mega]

http://www.tickerforum.org/cgi-ticke...=552661#552661

I don't think so.
Mike

[metalman]

Re: Is this for REAL?

http://www.tickerforum.org/cgi-ticke...=552661#552661

I don't think so.
Mike

like most info at tickerforum... garbage.

that's one larouche post and one tickerforum post. what next? a thread about who really blew up the world trade towers? did we really land on the moon?

gimme a ******* break.

[GRG55]

Re: Is this for REAL?

http://www.tickerforum.org/cgi-ticke...=552661#552661

I don't think so.
Mike

This was out yesterday:

Lehman Falls After Report About Oil Trading Exclusion

By Josh Fineman
July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. fell in New York trading after Reuters reported that energy-pricing company Platts put the firm under a review that excludes it from trading some oil contracts.

Lehman dropped $2.01, or 8.8 percent, to $20.84 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest decline in a week. The shares have fallen 68 percent this year.

Platts's oil pricing service, a unit of New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos., put Lehman under temporary review, Reuters reported, citing four people it didn't identify. The reason for the review, which ``effectively excludes'' Lehman from participating in Platts's benchmark assessment process, isn't clear, the news service said. Causes can vary from credit issues to trade disputes and shipment technicalities, it said.

Lehman spokesman Mark Lane declined to comment. Kathleen Tanzy, a spokeswoman for Platts in New York, couldn't immediately comment on the report.

And follow-up in Reuters today:

Platts move on Lehman highlights role as oil referee

Tue Jul 8, 2008 8:48am EDT
By Luke Pachymuthu and Felicia Loo
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil price agency Platts' move to temporarily bar Lehman Brothers (LEH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) from its trading window has highlighted its delicate dual role as the de facto regulator of the world's physical energy markets.

Platts, whose physical price assessments are the cornerstone for most of the world's energy markets, has put Lehman "under review", which means it will not take the Wall Street bank's bids, offers or deals into account when it assesses end-of-day cash market prices, industry sources told Reuters on Monday.

Such reviews, which are not uncommon, are normally reserved for companies that breach Platts' rules of engagement during its daily half-hour trading "window", failing to deliver on a contract, for instance. But market sources said they saw nothing to suggest that this was the case for Lehman Brothers.

Instead, they said, it appeared that Platts was acting in response to counterparty concerns about the No. 4 Wall Street bank's credit condition after multibillion-dollar write-downs and ongoing fears about the fall-out of the subprime debacle.

But for some, Platts' action itself was as great a concern.

"It's a bit worrying," said Gerard Rigby, a former Singapore-based oil trader who now runs Fuel First Consultancy in Sydney.

"Are they (Platts) a reporting agency or a pricing platform? They can determine who can trade on their own system. This is unusually powerful," he added.

Platts, a unit of U.S. McGraw-Hill Cos Inc (MHP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), has neither the remit nor resources to gauge the credit-worthiness of companies whose deals it uses to set its benchmark, but it has intervened in the past when credit issues became an impediment to free trade, potentially distorting the market...

...The oil industry has always been sensitive to any signs of Platts overstepping its primary function as a provider of price transparency in illiquid or opaque markets, from U.S. West Coast gasoline differentials to fuel oil cargoes in Singapore...

...While developed futures exchanges like the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) (NMX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) fall under the authority of regulators like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), most of the world's physical markets are unregulated.

To provide a benchmark price that can be used to settle long-term deals or derivatives trades, Platts gathers bids and offers on cash physical and over-the-counter derivative contracts during a half-hour daily trading period meant to concentrate market activity and provide a window of clarity.

Being excluded from posting bids or offers in that window -- a practice known as "boxing" -- does not prevent Lehman from trading with counterparties, but would mean its trades will not influence the benchmark end-of-day price set by Platts...

More...