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PRESS
PACK
<Back
1.
Company History & Executive Statement
2. FAQ's
3. A list of management and their backgrounds
4. Photographs & images
5. Current news releases
6. Contact details
Company History & Executive Statement
Established in 2001, Trade Exchange Network Ltd the owner and operator
of www.intrade.com and www.tradesports.com
have evolved into a worldwide leader in real-time Internet trading. After
launching the world's first real-time person to person trading platform
that incorporated trade matching, account management and settlement in
2002 we have continued to develop our service and now have members from
over 127 countries worldwide, offering real-time trading in over 1,200
innovative products, 23 hours per day, 365 days per year.
Through our proprietary trading platforms our members log on and deal
on the latest real-time dealing prices. We permission each member to deal
through a number of interfaces which all include full free access to real-time
market data.
Both tradesports.com
and intrade.com have become synonymous with real-time Internet trading
on some of the most innovative products in the world. The Company through
the market data that our members generate has earned much recognition
from the media, academic, and investment industries.
The key to our success is our dedication and drive in creating maximum
liquidity in innovative relevant products on a world class trading platform.
We develop our own software using our own experienced development team.
Our platform currently processes over 1,000,000 orders per day with all
back office functions associated with your trading updated in real-time.
Real-time
position keeping a feature of our platform enables our members to monitor
open positions and orders thereby helping them to know profit and loss,
and margin related issues.
As a result
of our business being built on a 100% Internet straight through processing
system, we keep our costs to a minimum. This has meant that trading fees
are extremely competitive. No fees for price makers and as low as $0.02
per lot at price extremes and $0.04 per lot for price takers generally.
Our product range now includes Sports, Financials, Political, Entertainment,
Weather, Current Events and much more. Over the last year our members
have transacted 1.9 million trades.
Following our continued success in the US, we have started a process to
become regulated in the US.
The company believes that offering trading and clearing services for innovative
contracts on a regulated platform will allow members to manage certain
financial risks that are currently not provided for on traditional futures
exchanges.
Pricing, trading and software efficiency have all helped to establish
tradesports.com and intrade.com as a world leader in real-time Internet
trading. However, without the continuing support and patronage of our
members and our dedicated personnel none of this would have been possible.
We have many
more opportunities ahead of us. We are enthusiastic for new products and
new markets. With our own experienced team of professionals, managers,
and developers we continue to expand rapidly across the world.
Our customer focus, innovation and strong technology culture has been
our platform for success to-date and will continue to be the basis for
our future further expansion.
Yours sincerely,
John Delaney
Chairman
FAQ's
What is the role of tradesports.com or intrade.com?
Intrade and TradeSports are exchange platforms that facilitate the matching
of orders from its customers. The exchange ensures that trading profits
and losses are transferred between customers in a timely manner and allows
customers to close out positions by trading with any other customer. The
Exchange does not enter into trades on the exchange.
What is
exchange trading?
Exchange trading allows members to trade on contracts against other members.
How does
the Exchange make its money?
By taking a small commission on matched trades. There is no charge for
entering an order; there is only a charge when you get a matched trade.
How are
the fees calculated?
The fee structure
has been modelled around an exchange and clearing house together. To calculate
your fees for any trade, multiply the number of lots you traded by $0.04
if you matched against an existing order. You pay no trading fee if you
enter an order that does not match immediately.
What types
of contracts do you trade?
The Exchange lists contracts as "binary European options" on
sports, politics, current events, economic indicators, weather, stock
indices, commodities, currencies and more. Intrade also list non-financial
contracts such as weather, current events & politics.
What is a binary option contract?
A binary option is a financial instrument that pays a predetermined amount
(payoff) if a specified outcome is achieved by the expiration date or
pays nothing (risk) if the outcome is not met. These options are sometimes
called digital options or all-or-nothing options
Example
1:
Binary Option
- Will the Dow Jones Industrial Average close higher than the previous
close.
If the Dow
closes higher than the previous close, the binary option settles at 100
and pays $10 for every contract the long position holder owns. If the
Dow does not close higher than the previous close the binary option settles
at 0 and pays nothing to the long position holder who loses the total
cost or price he paid for his option. The short position holder would
keep the amount he sold his option for if the Dow closed lower then the
previous close.
Between the
opening and the official close of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the
binary option can trade between 0 and 100; this reflects the probability
that the traders assign to the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing higher
at any time during the trading day.
Example
2:
Binary Option
- Will Initial Unemployment Claims be on or over 340,000 (for the specified
month when released by the Department of Labor).
Each month
the Department of Labor announces Initial Unemployment Claims, a measure
of the number of filings for state jobless benefits. If the number is
on or over 340,000 the binary option will settle at 100 and pay $10. If
the number is below 340,000 the binary option will settle at 0 and pay
nothing.
Traders are
now able to hedge market exposure to these economic numbers directly with
a long or short positions in the Intrade binary option contract and because
they trade on a 0 to 100 basis they reflect the percent probability, or
trader's confidence, that the event in question will occur. This is useful
to financial traders to gauge what expectation is priced into the market.
How are
binary options different from standard options?
Binary options are different from standard options in some very important
ways.
1. The "underlying
security" can be an event such as the Dow closing higher for the
day or an economic indicator being above or below a specific level or
"official" snowfall in New York City for the month of January
exceeding 5".
2. There
is no exercise or delivery requirements - either the event does occur
(Dow closes higher) or it does not - simple.
3. Margin
is lower than standard options because the total risk and payoff is defined
at the moment the order is entered - limited risk feature acts as a stop
loss but retains the volatility similar to standard options.
4. Binary
option traders are concerned with direction NOT magnitude of direction,
either the Dow will close higher or not, the fact that it closes $10 higher
or $100 higher the payoff is the same.
Who sets
the prices for these contracts and how are they traded?
The prices for the contracts are "set" by a growing membership
of traders on the exchange and are the result of the highest bid (where
someone will buy) and the lowest offer (where someone will sell). This
is identical to the way the price of Microsoft is "set" at the
New York Stock Exchange or NASDQ.
Orders to
trade (buy or sell) are entered via the "Order Ticket" from
the exchange's "trading screen" and take place between registered
members of the exchange.
In order
to trade you MUST register with the exchange by completing an online application
("Apply Now" link from the home page of intrade.com or tradesports.com)
and have sufficient funds in your account to complete the transaction.
Who settles the contracts?
The exchange settles all contracts when the outcome of the event in question
closes. For example, the contract for the Dow closing higher for the day
is settled when the official closing price of the Dow Jones Industrial
Average is announced. The Initial Unemployment Claims contract is settled
after the Department of Labor makes the official announcement on that
economic number.
How do you place or enter orders and make trades?
To place an order:
Go to intrade.com or tradesports.com "Trading Screen" tab.
From the drop down menu select the contract you want to trade or click
the "Markets" tab and select the contract you'd like to trade.
Click the Red "T" next to that contract and the Order Ticket
brings up the current bid and offer.
You fill in the quantity and price you want to trade at and enter "Buy"
or "Sell".
All trades are immediately entered in the market and trade confirmations
are automatically sent to you.
A position
management screen allows you to view all your current orders and trading
history.
What information do the prices reflect?
The trading price of every contract represents the consensus of more than
55,000 traders and investors on the outcome of that event. The prices
change, sometimes dramatically, as new information become available. For
example, during or immediately after the release of an economic number,
the Dow Higher contract could change dramatically.
A list of
management and their backgrounds
- John
Delaney, Chief Executive Officer
- Seamus
Rohan, Chief Financial Officer
- Ed
Lenox, Chief Technology Officer
- Joseph
Frisone, Senior Marketing Executive
- Sinead
Kelliher, Exchange Manager - Compliance
- Brian
Keating, Exchange Manager - Markets
John Delaney, Chief Executive Officer,
had spent 11 years in leading investment management companies in Ireland
in financial and investment roles prior to Trade Exchange Network where
he was a founder.
Previously John worked for large financial organisations in Ireland
such as Allied Irish Banks, Irish Life & Permanent, and Oppenheim
where he successfully held roles in financial, compliance and investment
positions.
During this time John and the other founders of the business became
convinced that a valuable opportunity existed for an Internet based
person-to-person trading exchange listing innovative contracts based
on the widest subject matter.
John initially pursued a career in accountancy and qualified as an accountant
14 years ago. Having gained audit, and taxation experience early in
his career and then achieved a Masters of Science Degree in Investment
Analysis and Treasury Management at Dublin City University. Thereafter
John has subsequently achieved a first class honours in the Masters
of Business Administration (MBA Finance) programme from the University
College Dublin's Smurfit School of Business.
Both the company and John have been routinely quoted on Forbes, Financial
Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Bloomberg, Reuters, Dow Jones,
Chicago Tribune and numerous other news sources.
(top)
Seamus Rohan, Chief Financial Officer,
is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants qualified
as an accountant in 1997.
Seamus initially worked in an audit and tax capacity where gained significant
exposure to a wide range of client firms. He concentrated on internal
control assessment and optimization and tax management.
Seamus also worked in an Audit capacity for the Irish Government at
the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Since qualification as an Accountant 8 years ago Seamus has held the
senior financial role in manufacturing, finance and electronic companies.
During this time Seamus has gained relevant experience to financial
control, business process optimization and operations management.
Seamus has joined Trade Exchange Network recently and is enjoying the
challenge of working in a rapidly growing organization.
(top)
Ed Lenox, Chief Technology Officer, leads
a technology team that created the technology that powers the Company's
exchange.
Ed is responsible for of all technology development and systems management
within organization. Ed is currently focused on keeping the Company
at the forefront of electronic exchange systems, leading the way by
utilizing the rapid advances in underlying technologies that the platform
is built on.
Ed has worked for a variety of leading software businesses where his
main focus and expertise has been the introduction of new technology
into existing corporate systems.
Before joining Trade Exchange Network, Ed was a software systems architect
working on projects in the German Financial services industry where
he worked on new technology projects for, among others, Dresdner Bank,
Commerzbank and HVB.
Ed graduated from Cambridge University with an honours degree in Engineering
where he specialized in Electrical and Information Sciences.
(top)
Joseph Frisone, Senior Marketing
Executive. Joseph Frisone brings to the company a blend of marketing
expertise partly gleaned from the agency side of the business, but also
in no small part from his working with hundreds of corporate clients
over the years.
Having commenced his career with Lehman Brothers, Joe's comprehensive
knowledge of trading and the broad financial markets makes him the ideal
candidate for this senior marketing position with Trade Exchange Network.Joe's
passion and belief in the Internet economy saw him migrate from a stock
brokerage career into the Internet in the mid 1990’s. Joe has held
a number of senior appointments in marketing and business development
roles with design and development firms.Joe has a Bachelor of Science
degree in Marketing and has various Marketing and Technology affiliations.
(top)
Sinead Kelliher, Exchange Manager
- Compliance. Prior to joining the company at its inception, Sinead
gained over 7 years experience in the trading industry both as a brokers
assistant and a floor trader on the FINEX (Financial Instrument Exchange)
division of the New York Board of Trade both in New York and Dublin.
Sinead has traded major cross currency rate futures and options and
managed both brokerage and proprietary trading operations.
Since the company's inception, Sinead has utilised her knowledge of
futures and options trading in the design of the user interface, contract
specifications, and development of online education tools and demonstrations.
Sinead is responsible for establishing the best practices in Exchange
Operations and overseeing the implementation of the Exchange and Contract
Rules.
Sinead holds an honours B.A. Degree in Economics from University College
Cork and a postgraduate Diploma in Business Studies from University
College Galway.
(top)
Brian Keating, Exchange Manager -
Contracts & Operations, leads a team at Trade Exchange Network that
provide a 24 by 7 Exchange Operations service.
Brian and his team are responsible for the listing and settlement of
the very many markets and contracts across the Company's platforms.
He is also responsible with others on the New Contracts Committee for
developing new and innovative markets of interest to the Company's trading
community.
Additionally Brian acts as a conduit between the Company and many of
the most significant liquidity providers and Market Makers.
Brian has been with the company since February 2003.
Prior to joining Trade Exchange Network, Brian was employed as the online
Risk Manager for Paddy Power Plc, Irelands largest gaming company. In
this position Brian was involved in developing the company's online
product and managed the day-to-day liabilities for the non-retail part
of the business, with particular interest in Horseracing.
Previous to his time at Paddy Power, Brian worked for William Hill in
London as a Trader. Brian also spent some time working for a US investment
management company located in Dublin called PFPC Intl, a subsidiary
of PNC Bank, and managed their relationships with a number of their
largest clients.
Brian graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a B.A. Economics.
(top)
Current
news releases
Get latest 3 releases from Mike K and then archive
the oldest as the newest comes in
Contact details
You can contact us via email:
Member/general enquiries: help@intrade.com
Press enquiries:
press@intrade.com
Marketing
enquiries: marketing@intrade.com
Careers:
recruitment@intrade.com
Affiliate/Partner
enquiries: affiliates@intrade.com
Telephone:
Intrade Representatives based in Dublin, Ireland are available to assist
you from 8:00AM to 10:00PM Dublin Time (3am - 5pm EST)
From the US: 1-866-303-1929
Or: +353-1-6200-365
Please note: No orders may be entered or cancelled by Intrade Representatives.
Mail:
Alternatively, you can contact us by mail at the following address:
Trade Exchange Network Limited
10B Park West Business Park
Beckett Way
Suite A
Dublin 12,
Ireland
Fax:
You may also send a fax to us at 1-866-303-1924 or +353-1-6200-396
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