May 2010

More on Efficient Trade Between Power Markets

Michael Giberson A paper by Giorgia Oggioni and Yves Smeers, “Degree of coordination in market-coupling and counter-trading,” examines the value of improving coordination between separate-but-interconnected power markets. (A post here last week cited a recent Windpower Monthly article that provides a good non-technical discussion of the issue. If you are not familiar with market coupling, …

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Derivatives Markets, Storage and Price Volatility

Michael Giberson I found this discussion of spot oil prices, futures prices, and commodity storage to be insightful: [R]ecent evidence suggests that the combination of derivative prices and storage stabilized rather than destabilized the oil markets. Indeed, during the run up in oil prices at the beginning of 2008 the spot price for oil was …

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When Stories Compete with Statistics for Attention, Stories Win

Michael Giberson Everyone loves a good story, it seems.  Maybe too much.  Three U-Mass researchers have detailed the overwhelming influence of anecdotal information in decision making, even less-than-adequate anecdotes presented alongside directly relevant and authoritative statistical information.  The research also looks at two strategies that mitigate some of the influence of anecdotal bias, priming a …

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The Right Market Design for Trade Between Power Markets

Michael Giberson Windpower Monthly has a great article describing changes in the market for transmission capacity between power systems in Europe and the benefits of the changes.  Here is a summary by way of selected quotes, but the full story is worth reading: Most of the electricity cables connecting Europe were built when electricity systems …

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Automatic Trading and Market (in)Stability

Michael Giberson News and commentary on Thursday’s stock market moves.  First, Newsweek, “The Computer Glitch Felt Round the World.”  Now, Scott Patterson, WSJ, reports “Did Shutdowns Make the Plunge Worse?” (Business Insider comments, “Everyone is rushing to blame [High Frequency Trading (HFT)] and other non-human problems for the crash… when, at least in part, it may have …

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Tennessee Ag Settles Price Gouging Claim Against Knoxville Gasoline Retailer

Michael Giberson Fall 2008 was a time of rapidly falling wholesale and retail gasoline prices throughout the United States, interrupted briefly due to the market disruptions of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in early September. In Tennessee, retail price increases surrounding Hurricane Ike resulted in more the 4,000 complaints to the state government. Resulting investigations by …

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FCC and Internet Regulation: “Lobbyists on Both Sides Are Already Shopping for New Vacation Houses in Aspen”

Michael Giberson From Regulation 2.0: Frustrated by a federal appeals court ruling that the FCC had no authority to second-guess Comcast’s treatment of customers and under pressure from the Obama Administration to impose a net neutrality regime (whatever that truly means) on the broadband industry, FCC Chair Julius Genachowski is now asserting the commission’s right …

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