eSpeed sieht heute auch gut aus...vorbörslich

It is anticipated that other major industry participants will join TradeSpark
shortly. Also today, TradeSpark issued a press release which can be found at
www.trade-spark.com

Howard W. Lutnick, chairman and CEO of eSpeed added, "TradeSpark launches our
technology into massive, non-financial marketplaces. Our business strategy is
simple - if it can be traded, it can be traded on eSpeed, if there isn't a
market for it, then we'll develop the marketplace for it. The possibilities are
endless and eSpeed is in a prime position to succeed in this exciting new area
of commerce."

eSpeed utilizes one of the most robust and scalable network distribution systems
available today. eSpeed's systems currently trade $150 billion per day in
transactions, using only 12% of system capacity. Its proven trading platform
provides 300 millisecond response time and is accessible over the Internet or
over eSpeed's private, global, instantaneous, electronic network. The
proprietary transaction processing software is fully scalable and extendable to
easily accommodate additional trading instruments and commodity products.

Varacchi added, "TradeSpark further demonstrates how the eSpeed system can power
the largest, fastest and most liquid marketplaces in the world. eSpeed's
unrivalled, proprietary, `built-and-paid-for' marketplace technology, combined
with a select group of the most advanced energy companies in the world, position
TradeSpark to lead the way in energy trading."

A recent Forrester Research study predicts that by 2004, online sales of natural
gas will reach $166 billion, representing 25 percent of all natural gas sales.
Forrester projects online sales of electricity reaching $101 billion by 2004, an
11 percent share of all electricity sales. During the last 12 months the
partners forming TradeSpark, together with Dynegy and Entergy, estimate that
they traded approximately 34.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day and 467
million megawatt hours of electricity. For the last quarter 2000, the TradeSpark
partners, together with Dynegy and Entergy, estimate they together traded
roughly 20% of all gas and power in North America.

And finally, we have our trading exchanges. Last year, Enron began the frenzy by launching EnronOnline. In less than one year, EnronOnline has logged transactions in excess of $100 billion. On April 13, 2000, six of the largest gas and electricity marketers in the U.S. announced they have formed a new independent energy trading consortium, which will own and operate an Internet-based, business-to-business, over-the-counter energy trading platform. The new trading platform, which is expected to be in operation by the end of the year, will be open to all wholesale energy industry participants and is known as the Intercontinental Exchange. The consortium's members are American Electric Power, Aquila Energy, a subsidiary of UtiliCorp United, Duke Energy, El Paso Energy, Reliant Energy, and Southern Company Energy Marketing, a unit of Southern Company. And now we have TradeSpark.

TradeSpark plans to create electronic marketplaces for natural gas, electricity, coal, weather derivatives, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide emission credits. What makes TradeSpark different? I attended an analyst conference call this morning to learn more. Here's what I discovered. TradeSpark is actually a venture that plans to utilize the infrastructure and capabilities of eSpeed, Inc. eSpeed claims several differentiating factors. First, it is in place. Most earlier announcements speak of a launch date some time in the future. TradeSpark will open for business next Monday, October 2. Secondly, TradeSpark is creating one large liquidity pool by bringing together several mediums, the Internet, voice brokering, and eSpeed's 300 millisecond private global network. eSpeed made it clear that it is different from the Intercontinental Exchange, which appears to be Internet-based and has yet to launch. And finally, TradeSpark appears to have some attractive financial incentives in place to encourage its use.

eSpeed announced a $2 million investment in TradeSpark for a 5% equity stake. That would give TradeSpark a pre-launch market valuation of $40 million. Should TradeSpark hit $250 million in revenue by year five, eSpeed would make available 8 million warrants at a strike price of $27.94. TradeSpark has no infrastructure expenses. It is based solely on revenues. eSpeed collects all revenues and pays TradeSpark 35% of them, consistent with its financial market arrangements.

eSpeed estimates the market size to be somewhere between $750 million to $1.250 billion. These are "real" revenue numbers, and I commend eSpeed for using them. Most companies "blur" the numbers by reporting notional numbers (please note EnronOnline's $100+ billion). eSpeed did make reference to moving over $10 trillion notional value last year.

Prior to this announcement, Dynegy and Williams agreed to invest $25 million each in eSpeed to develop at least four new commodity specific electronic spot and futures trading marketplaces. Such products included natural gas, electricity, natural gas liquids, petrochemicals, crude oil, and bandwidth.

So where does this leave us? It appears that three different business models are appearing on the energy trading front. EnronOnline's model has had early success for moving Enron-trader product only. The Intercontinental Exchange is made up of some heavy-hitters but appears to be Internet-only and has yet to launch. And now we have TradeSpark, which also has some heavy-hitters and appears to be leveraging the experience of a seasoned player and "enabler" in eSpeed. Each has its merits. Can all three survive in the long run? Will we be trading air in the near future? Stay tuned…

..ich setzte auf espeed...we will see...

das IZ-Trading habe ich übrigens eingestellt - wegen sinn-
und zeitmangels. jetzt bin ich übrigens wieder in eSpeed investiert ;-)
tja, wenn ich nach meinem kopf handeln würde, und nicht nach meinem
gefühl, könnte auch ich mich besser verstehen....


Tuesday September 26, 10:45 am Eastern Time

eSpeed launches electronic JGB trading

LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - eSpeed Inc (NasdaqNM:ESPD - news), which operates electronic marketplaces,
said on Tuesday it launched to the wholesale market fully interactive trade in Japanese Government Bonds
(JGBs).

eSpeed said in a statement the technology platform for the JGB marketplace had been adopted by a number of
Japanese wholesale banks and was being rolled out to financial institutions across Japan.

eSpeed said it provides the infrastructure over which more than $150 billion of financial instruments are traded daily.

The company, headquartered in New York, was spun off fron interdealer broker Cantor Fitzgerald in 1999. Its members include more than
600 wholesale banks and financial institutions.