Speculators Seek to Clean Up Speculation

"Speculation is only a word covering the making of money out of the manipulation of prices, instead of supplying goods and services." -- Henry Ford

While I do not agree with Henry Ford, his statement is a fair approximation of the feelings of many who do not work on Wall Street. Even some on Wall Street believe that deregulation went too far.

The principal component of successful markets is "trust" -- trust in one's counterparties, trust in one's trading and settlement mechanism, and most of all, trust in market pricing.

Participants need to have confidence that the playing field is level. Over the past 10 months, anyone who has read a newspaper or turned on the television has witnessed multiple stories that have eroded that trust.

It is imperative to the continued success of the U.S. financial markets that trust be restored, because if investors do not trust a market, they will not invest in it. ...