New products and services November 2005

• Inspired by the book The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, www.ConsensusView.com was launched to discover whether the idea that the many are smarter than the few can give traders an edge in the financial markets. The Web site allows participants in the stock, forex, and futures markets to forecast the direction of the markets and in return see the consensus view of where a market is heading. Participation is free and there is $12,000 of prize money for the best forecasters, with an additional prize of $250 for the person that referred them to the site. ConsensusView.com is the first Web site to open the voting to all members of the trading community and to capture the consensus on a daily basis. It keeps track of the hit rates of individual participants as well as the hit rate of the consensus. Voting for all markets opens at 4:30 a.m. London time and closes for each market as soon as it opens. Voters then get to see the consensus view for that market. Furthermore, the site displays the top five forecasters in each market as well as individual and consensus view hit rates. The site covers the constituents of the S&P 500, the FTSE 100, and the top 70 stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It also covers the 40 most actively traded futures markets as well as the 20 most actively traded forex currency pairs.
  
  
• The EFX Group Williamsburg branch is now offering hedge funds and institutions their lowest available Tier 3 commission rate. Commissions are based on the total dollar amount of currency traded each month; retail accounts are initially charged $7 per $100,000 traded. At the end of each month, the total dollar amount traded is calculated and a commission rebate is issued. Hedge funds and institutions that open an account through the Williamsburg branch will automatically receive their lowest rate of $5 per $100,000 traded, which is normally only available after $70 million in currency is traded each month. For more information on the three tiers and rates, visit www.efxgroup.com/williamsburg.