Saving SGX

It took two petitions, one online and one offline, to pack Magnus Bocker off. SGX announced yesterday that he would be leaving by end of June. The important task at hand is how to save the SGX from the ICU? The state of denial that all is fine is not an issue to MAS. The main problem is whether MAS sees any problem with the pathetic or critical condition of the stock market. Is everything doing fine, more new investors signing up, more derivatives being traded good indicators of the health of the stock market? Or would the MAS look at the number of investors really trading and the value of trades done in the equity market, the number of remisiers leaving the industry,  and the pittance in commission being generated?

There cannot be any real solution to the dying stock market if the cause or causes of its demise are not diagnosed. Does anyone really know what is wrong with the stock market, wants to know what is wrong with the stock market and to do an overhaul of the failed system? Yes, it is a systems fault, its problem is systemic, not no lunch break, not smaller lot size, not super penny stocks, not dwindling volume and disappearing investors. These are only symptoms of the cancer that is crippling the market and would go naturally if the real cause of the failure is identified.

If MAS is still wondering where to start, go to Shanghai. The Chinese have been studying the American model of stock trading and knew exactly what is wrong and are not going to repeat the same mistake. They are offering Shanghai and Hongkong as the alternative system where computer trading involving super computers in HFT and algo trading would not be allowed, where large scale manipulations would not be allowed. They are returning to the basics of stock market operations. There is an article ‘China now gives investors an alternative to (the)manipulated HFT U.S. stock markets’  at www.examiner.com.

Computer trading with high speed computers plugged into the main system of a stock market is simply unfair trading, giving unfair advantage to the computer operators to manipulate and rob the rest of the investors in broad daylight.

And the last thing the SGX should do is to go globe trotting to hunt for another foreign talent to replace Bocker. It would be a replay of the pathetic story all over again as most of these talents would still be sold to the American model of computer trading and all its fraudulent ways.

The MAS is faced with a mammoth and arduous task to quickly disconnect all the toxic cables connected to the SGX main trading system. These external computers are like parasites sticking to the main trading system and sucking everything, every dollar from the investors.

The stock market must go back to its original role as a source of funds for the industries and not a casino. It must not be turned into a cheap gambling system for boys and girls to play with their pocket money. The boys and girls can go and play monopoly. The stock market is for the adults to invest, for the industries, the corporations to tap as a source of fund for growth and expansion. They can’t get the funds from little children in the schools.

The stock market must be X rated and not PG13.  The broking houses and the Society of Remisiers must use this window to work with the MAS to find a real solution to the serious problem the stock market industry is facing. Make the stock market do what it was originally supposed to do. We already have two casinos and there is no need for a third casino. The broking houses and the MAS have a common interest to want to see the stock market back in the pink of health.

What is the point of having more boys and girls signing up as potential investors when they are not investing? It is time to be real. Or would this opportunity be wasted and everything back to square one with the hiring of another foreign talent to do the same thing all over again, with the stock market fighting for its life in the ICU?