Roughly 57 percent of the participants in a Traders Magazine poll on this Sunday's Super Bowl XLII say the New England Patriots will defeat the New York Football Giants and go undefeated this season, going 19-0.
In his regular op-ed column in the New York Times, David Brooks recently compared fragmentation in the record business to trends we are seeing throughout the economy. The radio stations that routinely played artists like Sly and the Family Stone in the same format as the Carpenters and the Rolling Stones no longer exist. In their place are hundreds of stations, each programmed to appeal to a narrowly focused listening demographic. The same is true in television, where the audiences for today's most popular programs pale in comparison with the viewership attracted by hits like "I Love Lucy" and "M*A*S*H." Instead, scores of specialized programs flourish on cable and satellite television, each targeting a small segment of viewers. But as Bruce Springsteen once lamented, there are "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)."
In the November issue, Traders Magazine reported on comments made at a recent industry conference regarding the effect of penny price increments on institutional trading. One options executive stated that large trades in penny option classes are increasingly executed over the counter and not on an exchange.