Opinion

Big Banks Needed This Comeuppance

Stock quotes in this article:GS 

And that is what we need. In the end, it is the mechanism that failed us, not the banks. They merely took advantage of the advantages that were given them, maximizing their profits for their shareholders and themselves.

To expect them to understand the excesses and impropriety of that system and control their appetites by themselves is impossible and ridiculous. The mechanism needs to be changed, back to the one where bankers did banking and traders stuck to trading.

I've been waiting for the day when those two worlds are once again separated. I think the system will work better and more fairly for everyone once that happens. And I think President Obama took a good first step in making that happen today.

Traders, rejoice. You may just get your careers back.

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Dan Dicker has been a floor trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange with more than 20 years' experience. He is a licensed commodities trade adviser. Dan's recognized energy market expertise includes active trading in crude oil, natural gas, unleaded gasoline and heating oil futures contracts; fundamental analysis including supply and demand statistics (DOE, EIA), CFTC trade reportage, volume and open interest; technical analysis including trend analysis, stochastics, Bollinger Bands, Elliot Wave theory, bar and tick charting and Japanese candlesticks; and trading expertise in outright, intermarket and intramarket spreads and cracks.

Dan also designed and supervised the introduction of the new Nymex PJM electricity futures contract, launched in April 2003, which cleared more than 600,000 contracts last year alone. Its launch has been the basis of Nymex's resurgence in the clearing of power market contracts over the last three years.

Dan Dicker has appeared as an energy analyst since 2002 with all the major financial news networks. He has lent his expertise in hundreds of live radio and television broadcasts as an analyst of the oil markets on CNBC, Bloomberg US and UK and CNNfn. Dan is the author of many energy articles published in Nymex and other trade journals.

Dan obtained a bachelor of arts degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1982.

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