DERIVATIVES DIARY: For Traders, One Bad MF Of A Week

Last week, Jon Marcus backed MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MFGLQ) Chief Executive Jon Corzine right up until the broker-dealer's end. This week, Marcus got angry. Then he grew sad.

"It's a crying shame," said Marcus, principal of Chicago-based Lakefront Futures & Options LLC, which relied on MF Global to handle its customers' trades for 12 years. "I'm still furious, but now it's more a feeling of depression."

Lakefront brokers trade for individual investors, farmers and asset managers that hedge risk or make speculative bids on the futures markets. MF Global cleared its business and managed its trading collateral, but the company's dive into bankruptcy Monday snared firms like Lakefront, locking them out of markets and freezing money on deposit.

Over the past two days, Marcus said, a steady stream of emails has arrived from MF Global staff, saying farewell and holding out hope that their teams might jump to other firms.

"I pray I can get help those guys and gals find jobs elsewhere in the industry," he said. Marcus doesn't expect to receive commission payments for October from MF Global, however.

 
   Cash Held Captive

Others among MF Global's tens of thousands of customers were less sanguine, particularly those who seemed victims of unfortunate timing. Syed Shah, a private investor in the U.K., said he tried to close out his brokerage account with MF Global early last week but to no avail. His account, with no outstanding trades on, holds $57,000 in cash that still remains out of reach.

"People pick up the phone but they say 'we don't know what's happening,'" said Shah. "I'm quite suspicious because I've made withdrawal requests before and it was in my account the next day, but not this time."

 
   Bond Trade Bogged Down, Wool Trade Tangled

MF Global's demise sent out ripples in markets around the world Monday, but it especially crimped business at GovEx, a State Street-backed platform designed for the automated trading of U.S. government issues.

The start-up relied on MF Global as its central counterparty for all trades, and the broker-dealer's bankruptcy shuttered commerce for about two days, according to GovEx Managing Director Tomas Zikas.

By Wednesday, GovEx had lined up a new firm to facilitate trading: longtime MF Global rival Newedge. The French firm also stepped in to take on some of the failed firm's futures-trading customers from CME Group Inc. (CME) in a mass transfer of client accounts this week.

Australia offered another hairy episode as exchange operator ASX Ltd. (ASX.AU) suspended trade in wool futures, where MF Global accounted for 80% of all business, according to a notice from ASX. Dealing in the white fluff resumed Wednesday.

 
   Newsletter Goes Dark

While members of MF Global's Washington Research Group, acquired in October 2010, continue to send out analysis, at least one New York-based newsletter run by the collapsed firm is ending.

Jim O'Sullivan, chief economist at MF Global, said in an email that Friday's "Macro for Markets," a weekly U.S. economics newsletter, would be the last. "Unfortunately, this is the last issue from MF Global, but we hope to be up and running again somewhere soon," wrote O'Sullivan and Stephanie Chang, an economist at the firm.

-By Jacob Bunge, Dow Jones Newswires; 312 750 4117; jacob.bunge@dowjones.com

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