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Add You - Inside the Uranium Market's Secret World
Junk hauling is a fun, profitable way to make some money. It also looks deceptively simple. Just pull up to somebody's house, toss their stuff in the back of your truck, get paid, and haul it off, right? Surely that's all there is to it.Like many things, if it really were that simple, everybody would be doing it. Granted, junk hauling isn't rocket science, but figuring out what works best by trial and error will be a long and bumpy road. Here are a few tips to get your junk-hauling business running smoothly.1) Use box trucks, not dump trucks. Yes, you can fit a lot of junk into a dump truck, but if you need a dump truck, you need to be hauling construction debris. The best way to make a junk-hauling business profitable is to not only get paid to haul the stuff off, but to sell it as well. By using a box truck instead, you can haul higher-quality junk like pool tables, juke boxes, and washers and dryers. Appliances and the like can be sold to recycling centers or used utilities stores, or auctioned off on Web sites like eBay.Plus, box trucks can have billboards on all sides, making them a four-way advertisement. Take a box truck and put it on a busy highway, or at strategic places around town, and you've got yourself a functioning billboard.2) Don't lock yourself in to pricing. Pricing is important, no doubt about it, but locking yourself in before you do the job is just bad business sense. If you lock yourself in before you see what needs to be hauled, you could easily over- or under-price the job. Most customers are ready to make a deal on a case-by-case basis. Just make sure you agree with them on a price prior to loading.3) Learn your city.This is probably one
New York Nuclear has only completed one transaction since launching this late last year. Why? “For large companies, this is something new,” he explained. “It has to go through reviews, legal reviews, risk management reviews and all that. It’s a departure from what they normally do.” In other conversations we’ve had with utilities and industry insiders, this is the problem NYMEX faces in drawing utilities into trading on their exchange.
Still, McCourt’s action impacted NYMEX trading this past week. After screen trading was completed last Wednesday, the NYMEX June 2007 U3O8 uranium swap suddenly dropped. During the previous week, McCourt’s screen snapshot, published in his Thursday night edition of FreshFUEL showed June 2007 uranium at $122 and December uranium at $130. This past Wednesday, uranium for December delivery dropped to $125/pound.
No transactions took place. But, it does confirm that buyers would be willing to pay $122 to $125/pound to purchase U3O8 for June and December delivery. Sellers refused to part with their material. Five days later, Ux Consulting raised the firm’s weekly spot price indicator to $125/pound. Obviously, TradeTech decided on the front-month and made the judgment call of $122 in this Friday edition of Nuclear Market Review, while Ux Consulting decided upon December’s delivery month price.
As a fuel broker, which is New York Nuclear’s main business, McCourt said, “As far as spot volume is concerned, I don’t think anyone knows everything that’s going on.” He pointed out his company has been doing transactions off the screens. “We don’t publicize those transact
I think we hear this more often than not in the world of Search Engine Optimization or even Internet Marketing. But what are the steps taken to actually find relevant keywords that will help your business?The basic idea of brainstorming is to figure out what might be a good search term for your related area. The reason I say might is because for obvious reasons, we do not have any data yet. Take in every keyword that possibly have similar themes, concepts, categories, etc. At this point we basically want to gather candidates so that you can narrow down your search later on.The popular tools out there that aid the process are tools like KeywordDiscovery.com and Wordtracker.com. Below, I am going to outline a couple if differences between them.Keywords discovery - They have one of the largest databases of keywords which estimate around 18 million searches. - Have seasonal data which is really advantages for people who are interested in promoting seasonal products e.g. Christmas gifts - Keyword spiders: Throw a URL to them and it will spider possible keywords that people actually search for within that page.Word Tracker - They have a clean database plus a lot of comprehensive search drilled down to a lot of long tail keywords. - Automated Pay per Click bid search to make the research easier. - They have a known market share from Metacrawler and Dogpile which are source search engines.So when we have gathered a substantial amount of keywords the most important thing to remember is relevancy. The choice of keywords revolves on how relevant it is to your business. As simple as it sounds, we still often get blinded but how “relevant” a keyword is in actual terms. Some search te
Utility fuel managers compete with a few handfuls of fuel brokers for the best price break. Utilities complain about the unwelcome speculators who’ve entered the market. and utility spokesman predict a long-term price about one-half of the US$122/pound price indicator announced in Nuclear Market Review this past Friday (another consulting service chose $125/pound for their ‘price indicator’). Some uranium miners forecast a price racing past $200/pound. Who is gaming whom? Or is this all part of the negotiations process between producers and end-users?
Meanwhile, more immediate price transparency seems to appear at Mestena’s regular spot uranium price auctions than in the much larger, but secretive uranium marketplace. Yet, the amount this private uranium producer has sold is far less than one percent of the uranium consumed in 2006. The present spread between spot and long-term uranium pricing has raised eyebrows and led some to question the credibility of the spot price.
Mestena’s next auction reportedly takes place on May 30th, or at least that’s when offers to buy the U3O8 are due. This time Mestena will have a bit of competition. An unnamed hedge fund has contacted potential buyers to solicit offers for 200 thousand pounds U3O8 and 100 metric tons U as UF6 – two days after Mestena opens the magic envelopes. As more material is offered to the market, perhaps the spot and long-term price will narrow to a more logical spread. Perhaps, instead, this spread will close when utilities and investors reach a consensus on Cameco Corp’s Cigar Lake project, Rio Tinto’s Namibian expansion and resolution of the March flooding in northern Australia, and a firm date on BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam expansion.
A Glimpse Inside This Secret World
The widely heralded ‘fiat uranium’ trading at the highly publicized NYMEX ring moves forward, but the exchange is still searching for participants, and it is about as entertaining as watching grass grow. In lower Manhattan, this commodity exchange was not only the first commodity forum to offer trading on platinum more than 40 years ago, but in early May began offering ‘paper’ uranium trading. The public can play the paper chase, but not for the real McCoy – U3O8.
In mid-town Manhattan, near Grand Central Station, a lesser known ‘commodity exchange,’ run by New York Nuclear, has real-time screen trading every Wednesday morning between 7:30 A.M. and 9:30 A.M. And the screen trading is for the real thing – the physical delivery of U3O8. The processed uranium is offered for delivery within a 30-day period at a licensed uranium conversion facility. Real product trading in real-time by real professionals, who mine uranium, consume uranium or act as a broker for either side.
No, the public is not invited to this clubby function. One must be a certified market participant to bid for or sell U3O8 through New York Nuclear’s Uranium Online. While NYMEX paper trading is open to amateurs and professional traders, Uranium Online only permits recognized persons to bid or offer uranium for sale.
“We have all categories as players,” New York Nuclear’s Joe McCourt told StockInterview.com. Those who have signed up to trade physical uranium on his online screen system include uranium producers, hedge funds, fuel brokers and utility fuel managers. “These are the major players in the physical uranium market,” McCourt added.
Our chat with Joe McCourt was quite enlightening. Later in an email exchange with Uranium One chief executive Neal Froneman, we were told Joe is a ‘heck of a nice guy.’ Others in the industry echoed his sentiments.
In a few words, Joe explained why uranium price transparency is presently out of reach, and could remain a mythical goal for some time. “There’s so few players in the business, and there’s a lot of confidentiality,” McCourt told StockInterview. “Everybody wants to see what everybody else does, but they don’t want anybody to see what they do.”
McCourt has also observed this secrecy in his company’s online screen system trading of physical uranium. “Everybody wants to see everybody else’s posts, but they don’t want to post themselves,” he told us.
Surrounded by this degree of secrecy and the recent NYMEX competition, why does McCourt persist? “In my opinion, I think that utilities want transparency,” he told us. “We want to improve how the market works.”
So who participates in the weekly trading sessions? “These are people we know to be bonafide buyers and sellers,” McCourt said. And what makes these bonafide? “We are in touch with the major players. We’ve been in the business for 25 years, and we’ve done deals with many people. We know who is for real and who is not for real.”
How does McCourt screen out the gamers? “We have user agreements, rules and procedures that everybody signs,” he told us. “It’s a contract. When anybody posts something in the system, it’s a like valid offer. They make a commitment.”
Do the buyers and sellers know with whom they are dealing? “No, it’s anonymous,” McCourt said. “Only we know. We stand as the hub. They can see us, but they can’t see each other.” McCourt reassured us his system has kept permanent records of all transactions and discussions during those trading sessions. “We have a system that is auditable, if some authority comes to us,” he said.
Another concern was his company’s participation in the trading. “We don’t do it on our own account,” McCourt told us. “We are strictly brokers. We are matching buyers and sellers. It’s our reputation that’s on the line.”
Prior to participation in the online trading, everyone on the system is sent a possible counterparty list. Those companies who have had bad relationships in the past can strike off parties with whom they will not do business. “People are very concerned about credit,” McCourt explained. “You don’t want to sign a deal with someone you don’t like their credit, or you don’t think they are a reliable supplier.” He further explained that risk departments are ‘very involved with procurement these days and companies are very careful about their counterparts.’
What are the bugs in McCourt’s system? “Most material is bought and sold under long-term contracts,” he said. “There’s not a long of activity in the spot market. We are trying to help more activity develop in the spot market by making it easier for people to do deals, having certain delivery times and delivery locations.” In other words, McCourt hope to standardize the secondary market.
But why is there only one two-hour trading session per week? “There’s not a lot of liquidity in this market,” McCourt responded. “We picked two hours once a week to concentrate on this. Otherwise, it’s like watching paint dry.”
New York Nuclear has only completed one transaction since launching this late last year. Why? “For large companies, this is something new,” he explained. “It has to go through reviews, legal reviews, risk management reviews and all that. It’s a departure from what they normally do.” In other conversations we’ve had with utilities and industry insiders, this is the problem NYMEX faces in drawing utilities into trading on their exchange.
Still, McCourt’s action impacted NYMEX trading this past week. After screen trading was completed last Wednesday, the NYMEX June 2007 U3O8 uranium swap suddenly dropped. During the previous week, McCourt’s screen snapshot, published in his Thursday night edition of FreshFUEL showed June 2007 uranium at $122 and December uranium at $130. This past Wednesday, uranium for December delivery dropped to $125/pound.
No transactions took place. But, it does confirm that buyers would be willing to pay $122 to $125/pound to purchase U3O8 for June and December delivery. Sellers refused to part with their material. Five days later, Ux Consulting raised the firm’s weekly spot price indicator to $125/pound. Obviously, TradeTech decided on the front-month and made the judgment call of $122 in this Friday edition of Nuclear Market Review, while Ux Consulting decided upon December’s delivery month price.
As a fuel broker, which is New York Nuclear’s main business, McCourt said, “As far as spot volume is concerned, I don’t think anyone knows everything that’s going on.” He pointed out his company has been doing transactions off the screens. “We don’t publicize those transacti
Expanding your company to a new city is a giant step. There are many important decisions to make about your location, employees, financial needs and how you will best benefit your clients. If your remote employees will be working from home or their cars for the most part, you can provide them with access to a local branch of your company without paying high rent or buying expensive office equipment. Here are two options:Renting a Virtual Office for Your EmployeesProviding a local virtual office for your remote employees is one way to help their daily tasks go more smoothly. A virtual office is designed to help employees who work either from home or operate out of their vehicle most of the day by providing a local business presence and convenient location for part-time office tasks. Rather than using their home mailing address and phone number, your employees are able to use a local business address and phone number provided by the virtual office services.Virtual Office BenefitsYour sales force will be able to operate professionally and can use the virtual office to perform vital tasks that might not be possible otherwise. For example, many virtual office services provide part-time access to a fully-equipped office. Your employees can use the office to make phone calls, send and receive faxes, make copies and perform other important office tasks. This works well for your work-at-home employees who live in the suburbs and are unable to drive back and forth to meet clients or perform office tasks.The virtual office provides a convenient, central location for all your employees to use when they need it. Conference rooms are also available for times when your employees might need to meet with clients
A Glimpse Inside This Secret World
The widely heralded ‘fiat uranium’ trading at the highly publicized NYMEX ring moves forward, but the exchange is still searching for participants, and it is about as entertaining as watching grass grow. In lower Manhattan, this commodity exchange was not only the first commodity forum to offer trading on platinum more than 40 years ago, but in early May began offering ‘paper’ uranium trading. The public can play the paper chase, but not for the real McCoy – U3O8.
In mid-town Manhattan, near Grand Central Station, a lesser known ‘commodity exchange,’ run by New York Nuclear, has real-time screen trading every Wednesday morning between 7:30 A.M. and 9:30 A.M. And the screen trading is for the real thing – the physical delivery of U3O8. The processed uranium is offered for delivery within a 30-day period at a licensed uranium conversion facility. Real product trading in real-time by real professionals, who mine uranium, consume uranium or act as a broker for either side.
No, the public is not invited to this clubby function. One must be a certified market participant to bid for or sell U3O8 through New York Nuclear’s Uranium Online. While NYMEX paper trading is open to amateurs and professional traders, Uranium Online only permits recognized persons to bid or offer uranium for sale.
“We have all categories as players,” New York Nuclear’s Joe McCourt told StockInterview.com. Those who have signed up to trade physical uranium on his online screen system include uranium producers, hedge funds, fuel brokers and utility fuel managers. “These are the major players in the physical uranium market,” McCourt added.
Our chat with Joe McCourt was quite enlightening. Later in an email exchange with Uranium One chief executive Neal Froneman, we were told Joe is a ‘heck of a nice guy.’ Others in the industry echoed his sentiments.
In a few words, Joe explained why uranium price transparency is presently out of reach, and could remain a mythical goal for some time. “There’s so few players in the business, and there’s a lot of confidentiality,” McCourt told StockInterview. “Everybody wants to see what everybody else does, but they don’t want anybody to see what they do.”
McCourt has also observed this secrecy in his company’s online screen system trading of physical uranium. “Everybody wants to see everybody else’s posts, but they don’t want to post themselves,” he told us.
Surrounded by this degree of secrecy and the recent NYMEX competition, why does McCourt persist? “In my opinion, I think that utilities want transparency,” he told us. “We want to improve how the market works.”
So who participates in the weekly trading sessions? “These are people we know to be bonafide buyers and sellers,” McCourt said. And what makes these bonafide? “We are in touch with the major players. We’ve been in the business for 25 years, and we’ve done deals with many people. We know who is for real and who is not for real.”
How does McCourt screen out the gamers? “We have user agreements, rules and procedures that everybody signs,” he told us. “It’s a contract. When anybody posts something in the system, it’s a like valid offer. They make a commitment.”
Do the buyers and sellers know with whom they are dealing? “No, it’s anonymous,” McCourt said. “Only we know. We stand as the hub. They can see us, but they can’t see each other.” McCourt reassured us his system has kept permanent records of all transactions and discussions during those trading sessions. “We have a system that is auditable, if some authority comes to us,” he said.
Another concern was his company’s participation in the trading. “We don’t do it on our own account,” McCourt told us. “We are strictly brokers. We are matching buyers and sellers. It’s our reputation that’s on the line.”
Prior to participation in the online trading, everyone on the system is sent a possible counterparty list. Those companies who have had bad relationships in the past can strike off parties with whom they will not do business. “People are very concerned about credit,” McCourt explained. “You don’t want to sign a deal with someone you don’t like their credit, or you don’t think they are a reliable supplier.” He further explained that risk departments are ‘very involved with procurement these days and companies are very careful about their counterparts.’
What are the bugs in McCourt’s system? “Most material is bought and sold under long-term contracts,” he said. “There’s not a long of activity in the spot market. We are trying to help more activity develop in the spot market by making it easier for people to do deals, having certain delivery times and delivery locations.” In other words, McCourt hope to standardize the secondary market.
But why is there only one two-hour trading session per week? “There’s not a lot of liquidity in this market,” McCourt responded. “We picked two hours once a week to concentrate on this. Otherwise, it’s like watching paint dry.”
New York Nuclear has only completed one transaction since launching this late last year. Why? “For large companies, this is something new,” he explained. “It has to go through reviews, legal reviews, risk management reviews and all that. It’s a departure from what they normally do.” In other conversations we’ve had with utilities and industry insiders, this is the problem NYMEX faces in drawing utilities into trading on their exchange.
Still, McCourt’s action impacted NYMEX trading this past week. After screen trading was completed last Wednesday, the NYMEX June 2007 U3O8 uranium swap suddenly dropped. During the previous week, McCourt’s screen snapshot, published in his Thursday night edition of FreshFUEL showed June 2007 uranium at $122 and December uranium at $130. This past Wednesday, uranium for December delivery dropped to $125/pound.
No transactions took place. But, it does confirm that buyers would be willing to pay $122 to $125/pound to purchase U3O8 for June and December delivery. Sellers refused to part with their material. Five days later, Ux Consulting raised the firm’s weekly spot price indicator to $125/pound. Obviously, TradeTech decided on the front-month and made the judgment call of $122 in this Friday edition of Nuclear Market Review, while Ux Consulting decided upon December’s delivery month price.
As a fuel broker, which is New York Nuclear’s main business, McCourt said, “As far as spot volume is concerned, I don’t think anyone knows everything that’s going on.” He pointed out his company has been doing transactions off the screens. “We don’t publicize those transact
Everyday we log on and get into this strange online world called the web. Now many of us believe that the Internet and web are the same, but though they are related, they are not quite the same thing. The Internet or the Net as we all call it now, is a worldwide system of interconnected computer networks. It transmits data using the Internet protocol. The net has many networks all tied together, carrying out many functions. These functions may be as different as email or pages of information, or even online chat. The Web is a read-write information space. It has resources like text documents, images and multimedia.It is interesting to see how the web works. Anyone accessing the web will use a web browser like the Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox and the hypertext link to the page or resource is typed in. The address would read like this ‘http://www.example.com/mypage.html'. This address is given by the global, distributed Internet database known as the Domain Name System or DNS. To make this sound easier, in the above example, the address of the server is www.example.com and there, a request to view “mypage” is being made. HTTP or Hypertext Transfer Protocol helps is accessing the server. The DNS then turns all this into an individualized IP or Internet Protocol address. This will look like a phone number with four numbers between 0 and 255. The IP is a procedure set up by the Internet to find a server anywhere in the world. In fact once the IP address is known, the server can be located through the ISP or Internet Service Provider.Once the IP address is reached the web site and all its content becomes available to the user. Almost immediately the html or hypertext markup language code is sent back and the text and gra
Our chat with Joe McCourt was quite enlightening. Later in an email exchange with Uranium One chief executive Neal Froneman, we were told Joe is a ‘heck of a nice guy.’ Others in the industry echoed his sentiments.
In a few words, Joe explained why uranium price transparency is presently out of reach, and could remain a mythical goal for some time. “There’s so few players in the business, and there’s a lot of confidentiality,” McCourt told StockInterview. “Everybody wants to see what everybody else does, but they don’t want anybody to see what they do.”
McCourt has also observed this secrecy in his company’s online screen system trading of physical uranium. “Everybody wants to see everybody else’s posts, but they don’t want to post themselves,” he told us.
Surrounded by this degree of secrecy and the recent NYMEX competition, why does McCourt persist? “In my opinion, I think that utilities want transparency,” he told us. “We want to improve how the market works.”
So who participates in the weekly trading sessions? “These are people we know to be bonafide buyers and sellers,” McCourt said. And what makes these bonafide? “We are in touch with the major players. We’ve been in the business for 25 years, and we’ve done deals with many people. We know who is for real and who is not for real.”
How does McCourt screen out the gamers? “We have user agreements, rules and procedures that everybody signs,” he told us. “It’s a contract. When anybody posts something in the system, it’s a like valid offer. They make a commitment.”
Do the buyers and sellers know with whom they are dealing? “No, it’s anonymous,” McCourt said. “Only we know. We stand as the hub. They can see us, but they can’t see each other.” McCourt reassured us his system has kept permanent records of all transactions and discussions during those trading sessions. “We have a system that is auditable, if some authority comes to us,” he said.
Another concern was his company’s participation in the trading. “We don’t do it on our own account,” McCourt told us. “We are strictly brokers. We are matching buyers and sellers. It’s our reputation that’s on the line.”
Prior to participation in the online trading, everyone on the system is sent a possible counterparty list. Those companies who have had bad relationships in the past can strike off parties with whom they will not do business. “People are very concerned about credit,” McCourt explained. “You don’t want to sign a deal with someone you don’t like their credit, or you don’t think they are a reliable supplier.” He further explained that risk departments are ‘very involved with procurement these days and companies are very careful about their counterparts.’
What are the bugs in McCourt’s system? “Most material is bought and sold under long-term contracts,” he said. “There’s not a long of activity in the spot market. We are trying to help more activity develop in the spot market by making it easier for people to do deals, having certain delivery times and delivery locations.” In other words, McCourt hope to standardize the secondary market.
But why is there only one two-hour trading session per week? “There’s not a lot of liquidity in this market,” McCourt responded. “We picked two hours once a week to concentrate on this. Otherwise, it’s like watching paint dry.”
New York Nuclear has only completed one transaction since launching this late last year. Why? “For large companies, this is something new,” he explained. “It has to go through reviews, legal reviews, risk management reviews and all that. It’s a departure from what they normally do.” In other conversations we’ve had with utilities and industry insiders, this is the problem NYMEX faces in drawing utilities into trading on their exchange.
Still, McCourt’s action impacted NYMEX trading this past week. After screen trading was completed last Wednesday, the NYMEX June 2007 U3O8 uranium swap suddenly dropped. During the previous week, McCourt’s screen snapshot, published in his Thursday night edition of FreshFUEL showed June 2007 uranium at $122 and December uranium at $130. This past Wednesday, uranium for December delivery dropped to $125/pound.
No transactions took place. But, it does confirm that buyers would be willing to pay $122 to $125/pound to purchase U3O8 for June and December delivery. Sellers refused to part with their material. Five days later, Ux Consulting raised the firm’s weekly spot price indicator to $125/pound. Obviously, TradeTech decided on the front-month and made the judgment call of $122 in this Friday edition of Nuclear Market Review, while Ux Consulting decided upon December’s delivery month price.
As a fuel broker, which is New York Nuclear’s main business, McCourt said, “As far as spot volume is concerned, I don’t think anyone knows everything that’s going on.” He pointed out his company has been doing transactions off the screens. “We don’t publicize those transact
EBOOK DETAILS File Size: 2.14mb Zipped, 2.18mb Unzipped. Number of Pages: 44 Format: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf). Subject: The Worn Paper System is "the average person's guide to making money on the Internet." In this ebook Sara Brown discusses the exact blueprint she uses to put together simple, money making websites, time and time again, project after project. ABOUT SARA BROWN (AUTHOR OF THE WORN PAPER SYSTEM) Sara Brown is one of the UK's top Internet Marketers. She runs a variety of websites which can all be accessed from http://www.sara-brown.com/choices/. If you want to know more read her About Me page on eBay or subscribe to her newsletter through her websites. ABOUT THE EBOOK As a long time newsletter subscriber and repeat customer of Sara Brown's I snapped up a copy of The Worn Paper System as soon as it was offered to me. This system was initially a diagram scribbled down onto a worn piece of paper and pinned above Sara's desk. The diagram itself is a result of Sara's one year research into how to avoid losses and replicate big successes online. Now for the first time ever she has converted it into ebook form. Not only do you get the actual diagram that Sara has used to set up her various money making websites, but she also breaks it down into step by step, easy to follow instructions. To put it in Sara's words this is "the average person's guide to making money on the Internet." Inside the Worn Paper System Sara tells you: · How to create and sell your own Ebook!! · How to sell Affiliate Products!! · How to create and sell your own Software!! · How to use Blogs to promote the above Products!! · How to use Forums to promote the above Products!!
Do the buyers and sellers know with whom they are dealing? “No, it’s anonymous,” McCourt said. “Only we know. We stand as the hub. They can see us, but they can’t see each other.” McCourt reassured us his system has kept permanent records of all transactions and discussions during those trading sessions. “We have a system that is auditable, if some authority comes to us,” he said.
Another concern was his company’s participation in the trading. “We don’t do it on our own account,” McCourt told us. “We are strictly brokers. We are matching buyers and sellers. It’s our reputation that’s on the line.”
Prior to participation in the online trading, everyone on the system is sent a possible counterparty list. Those companies who have had bad relationships in the past can strike off parties with whom they will not do business. “People are very concerned about credit,” McCourt explained. “You don’t want to sign a deal with someone you don’t like their credit, or you don’t think they are a reliable supplier.” He further explained that risk departments are ‘very involved with procurement these days and companies are very careful about their counterparts.’
What are the bugs in McCourt’s system? “Most material is bought and sold under long-term contracts,” he said. “There’s not a long of activity in the spot market. We are trying to help more activity develop in the spot market by making it easier for people to do deals, having certain delivery times and delivery locations.” In other words, McCourt hope to standardize the secondary market.
But why is there only one two-hour trading session per week? “There’s not a lot of liquidity in this market,” McCourt responded. “We picked two hours once a week to concentrate on this. Otherwise, it’s like watching paint dry.”
New York Nuclear has only completed one transaction since launching this late last year. Why? “For large companies, this is something new,” he explained. “It has to go through reviews, legal reviews, risk management reviews and all that. It’s a departure from what they normally do.” In other conversations we’ve had with utilities and industry insiders, this is the problem NYMEX faces in drawing utilities into trading on their exchange.
Still, McCourt’s action impacted NYMEX trading this past week. After screen trading was completed last Wednesday, the NYMEX June 2007 U3O8 uranium swap suddenly dropped. During the previous week, McCourt’s screen snapshot, published in his Thursday night edition of FreshFUEL showed June 2007 uranium at $122 and December uranium at $130. This past Wednesday, uranium for December delivery dropped to $125/pound.
No transactions took place. But, it does confirm that buyers would be willing to pay $122 to $125/pound to purchase U3O8 for June and December delivery. Sellers refused to part with their material. Five days later, Ux Consulting raised the firm’s weekly spot price indicator to $125/pound. Obviously, TradeTech decided on the front-month and made the judgment call of $122 in this Friday edition of Nuclear Market Review, while Ux Consulting decided upon December’s delivery month price.
As a fuel broker, which is New York Nuclear’s main business, McCourt said, “As far as spot volume is concerned, I don’t think anyone knows everything that’s going on.” He pointed out his company has been doing transactions off the screens. “We don’t publicize those transact
Not so very long ago adding a graph or chart to a web page or application required a fair amount of programming knowledge and was rather time consuming for even the most experienced. However with the tools available today it is possible for almost anyone to add graphs and charts to web pages. With just a little bit of HTML, dynamically generated graphs and charts can be added to web pages and/or applications.Why use Graphs and Charts The web is about making information available. Today's users tend to be in a hurry and require that information is presented to them clearly and quickly. If your web site has a message to convey, which is currently being presented as a table of figures, then it is highly likely that you will benefit from using graphing and charting functionality. With a table of figures most people find it hard to see the meaning immediately, however if those figures are presented as a picture (i.e. a graph) then almost all will instantly get the point. What's more presenting your information graphically is both colorful and adds a touch of professionalism. People tend to have more confidence in information when it is presented in both a pleasing, clear and professional manner.The Easy way to create a graph There are now many graphing and charting packages on the market which make it very quick and easy for you to build in professional quality graph images. The time saved in using an 'out of the box' solution is so great that even the most seasoned professionals are using these packages. In addition most graphing packages are very reasonably priced. Before choosing a package there are a couple of things to consider. For instance do you simply want t
New York Nuclear has only completed one transaction since launching this late last year. Why? “For large companies, this is something new,” he explained. “It has to go through reviews, legal reviews, risk management reviews and all that. It’s a departure from what they normally do.” In other conversations we’ve had with utilities and industry insiders, this is the problem NYMEX faces in drawing utilities into trading on their exchange.
Still, McCourt’s action impacted NYMEX trading this past week. After screen trading was completed last Wednesday, the NYMEX June 2007 U3O8 uranium swap suddenly dropped. During the previous week, McCourt’s screen snapshot, published in his Thursday night edition of FreshFUEL showed June 2007 uranium at $122 and December uranium at $130. This past Wednesday, uranium for December delivery dropped to $125/pound.
No transactions took place. But, it does confirm that buyers would be willing to pay $122 to $125/pound to purchase U3O8 for June and December delivery. Sellers refused to part with their material. Five days later, Ux Consulting raised the firm’s weekly spot price indicator to $125/pound. Obviously, TradeTech decided on the front-month and made the judgment call of $122 in this Friday edition of Nuclear Market Review, while Ux Consulting decided upon December’s delivery month price.
As a fuel broker, which is New York Nuclear’s main business, McCourt said, “As far as spot volume is concerned, I don’t think anyone knows everything that’s going on.” He pointed out his company has been doing transactions off the screens. “We don’t publicize those transactions,” he told us. And true to his word, McCourt did not reveal the pricing on his company’s transactions.
McCourt hopes he can grow his online trading business by attracting more buyers and sellers to post on his screen system. “We are helping the buyers and sellers get together so eventually these screens will be populated with a lot of numbers, and hopefully a lot of transactions.” McCourt also pointed out, “That’s going to add tremendous transparency to this market, which doesn’t exist to a great extent now.” He hopes utility buyers can make routine, small purchases instead of infrequent large purchases. “Instead of buying one million pounds every year, they could buy 20,000 pounds every week,” McCourt said.
Conclusion
Over the past year, the combination of a sharp uranium price rise accompanied by the entry of new uranium producers has probably obscured price transparency instead of providing more transparency.
Aside from finding out why there is now a $37/pound spread between the spot and long-term contract price for U3O8, we have one significant unanswered question. At which levels are the ‘escalating’ floor prices for the recent contracts announced for the near-term U3O8 production by companies such as Paladin Resources (PALAF) and Uranium One? Until we gain a better understanding of these floor prices, we may not realistically have price transparency.
In the interim, investors and traders can have some glimpse of price transparency but only for short-term trading purposes. In a previous article, we evaluated some of the available market research tools available to the sophisticated investor.
Let’s put this into a linear timeline for better understanding.
The first company out of the box with any indication of where the uranium market could head during the current week and into the early part of the following week is New York Nuclear. Wednesday’s screen trading includes utility fuel managers, fuel brokers, utility risk managers and other buyers, who square off for two hours, early Wednesday morning, against their counterparts. These could include other fuel brokers, uranium producers or their marketing managers, hedge funds and speculators. To date, price indications are provided as to what buyers could be willing to pay for U3O8 purchases, and at which prices sellers won’t part with their material.
Granted, little transaction activity has taken place on the Uranium Online trading screens, but the activity during those screen trading sessions provides some price guidance. On Thursday night, Washington Nuclear (sister company of New York Nuclear) emails the weekly edition of FreshFUEL to paid subscribers. In the past two issues we’ve reviewed, a screen shot is provided on Page 2.
Late Friday night each week, TradeTech publishes changes in the spot price in Nuclear Market Review. TradeTech interviews its proprietary list of market participants on Friday afternoon and gathers new data not reported in FreshFUEL. Because the market participants in the Wednesday screen sessions are mostly North American and European, TradeTech may obtain new data or find out about off-screen transactions post-Wednesday’s screen trading.
Every two weeks, Platts Nuclear Fuel is published for the nuclear industry. In the May 21st edition, one of three front page headlines reported, “Two uranium auctions expected to push U price up.” Spot price transactions, according to traders Platts interviewed, were expected to reach between $120 and $140/pound U3O8. Because Platts emails its newsletter to paid subscribers on Friday before TradeTech issues its weekly spot price, Platts subscribers get the ‘old’ price.
Sometime on late Monday, Ux Consulting reports its spot uranium price to paid subscribers. On a few occasions there have been negligible discrepancies between the UxC price and the TradeTech weekly spot price. Late Tuesday, non-UxC subscribers find out this consulting firm’s price indicator.
The next day, on early Wednesday morning a new cycle begins when New York Nuclear conducts the next session of its screen trading.
For all the hoopla, little uranium price transparency has taken place with NYMEX futures. Ux Consulting president Jeff Combs announced it would take about six months or so to develop. It’s the ‘or so’ part we believe may take longer than Mr. Combs expects. In the way of an apology, NYMEX suggested this tiny amount of trading was ‘what was expected.’
NYMEX faces the same hurdles New York Nuclear has yet to overcome. Risk management departments at utilities question whether or not they will participate in these futures. Of those we’ve had conversations with, we are told, “We are still studying this.”
Between New York Nuclear’s Wednesday screen trading of physical uranium (as opposed to ‘paper trading’) and TradeTech’s weekly report on the spot uranium price, we obtain some guidance as to the direction of the uranium market.
But this only provides short term visibility. Until the long-term uranium price and the spot price narrow the spread, and until price transparency comes about from the ‘escalating floor contracts,’ the general public will remain in the dark.
A real solution would come from physical uranium trading on a grand scale, as Joe McCourt envisions, instead of the fiat trading now taking place.
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