Sorry, Only the Big Boys got to save some of their ass ...
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A rare emergency trading session opened Sunday afternoon to allow Wall Street dealers in the $455 trillion derivatives market reduce their exposure to a potential bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers.
U.S. regulators and bankers were making last-ditch efforts on Sunday to prevent toxic assets from ailing Lehman Brothers (LEH.N) spilling into global markets and rupturing investor faith in the international financial system.
"This is an extremely, and I stress extremely, rare event. It also speaks to the more general notion that, in today's highly disrupted financial markets, the unthinkable is thinkable," said Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of Pimco, the world's biggest bond fund, based in Newport Beach, California.
The session opened at 2 p.m. and was due to run until 4 p.m. New York time, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.
Trading involved credit, equity, rates, foreign exchange and commodity derivatives. ISDA confirmed a "netting trading session" was taking place for over-the-counter derivatives, in which trades that offset each other are settled.
ISDA estimates the OTC derivatives market excluding commodities has a value of $455 trillion.
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