Strategic trading behavior and price distortion in a manipulated market: an anatomy of a squeeze

This paper investigates the trading behavior of major market participants during and attempted delivery squeeze in a bond futures contract traded in London. Using the cash and futures trades of dealers and customers, it provides empirical evidence on the strategic trading behavior of market participants in a market manipulation setting. It shows how learning takes place in the marketplace and how squeezes are accompanied by severe price distortions and market depth erosion. It also shows how the marked differences in the penalties for settlement failures in the cash and futures markets created conditions that favor squeezes. To minimize such incidents, it recommends that exchanges marktomarket the specifications of their contracts more frequently, and that regulatory reporting requires flagging of possession oriented trades like forward term repos that straddle the futures contract delivery period

The prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and hepatitis C virus among injection drug users who use high risk inner-city locales in Miami, Florida

In order to estimate the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection in hard-to-reach intravenous drug users, 199 subjects from high-risk inner-city locales, the so called "shooting galleries", were consented, interviewed, and tested in Miami, FL, US. Positive HIV-1 status was based on repeatedly reactive ELISA and confirmatory Western Blot. Positive HCV status was based on reactive ELISA and confirmatory polymerase chain reaction techniques. Overall, 50 (25%) were not infected with either virus, 61 (31%) were HIV-1/HCV co-infected, 17 (8%) infected by HIV-1 only, and 71 (36%) infected by HCV only. The results of the multivariable analyses showed that more years using heroin was the only significant risk factor for HCV only infection (odds ratio = 1.15; 95% confidence interval = 1.07, 1.24) and for HIV-1/HCV co-infection (odds ratio = 1.17; 95% confidence interval = 1.09, 1.26). This paper demonstrates that HIV-1/HCV co-infection is highly prevalent among so called "shooting galleries"