LOOSE CHANGE

The Managed Account Reports (MAR) currency trading advisor sub-index for July was up 4.22 percent to 18.03 for the year. The currency sub-index consists of 53 trading advisors and their programs. MAR reports figures on a one-month lag.

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange reports daily average combined currency options volume increased to 55,055 contracts during August, from 42,548 a year earlier. Combined currency options open interest also rose in August, to 1,338,458 from 1,041,943 a year ago. French franc open interest hit an all-time high on the exchange, with a total of 716,937 contracts, compared with just 206,395 a year ago.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has announced a September 20 launch date for its French franc 'rolling spot' futures and options contract. The long-awaited launch of its Deutsche mark 'rolling spot' contract remains set for September 14. The mark contract is slated to trade on the exchange from 7:20 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (Chicago time), and on Globex 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Sunday through Thursday.

The Bank of Japan reported that dollar/yen turnover in Tokyo fell to an average of $6.15 billion a day in the week ended September 3, from $7.35 billion in the week ended August 27. Average daily dollar/mark turnover rose for the same period, to $2.5 billion, from $2.42 billion the previous week.

Swiss Bank Corporation's proposed new treasury dealing room in Singapore will have 80 dealing positions from 60 currently, according to the bank's Singapore branch manager Rudolf Flury. SBC has decided to sell its multi-billion dollar commodity trade financing arm in Singapore and will concentrate on merchant banking and capital and treasury operations, Flury says.

Japan's gold and foreign exchange reserves jumped $8.8 billion from the end of July to a four-year high of $95.4 billion at the end of August, Ministry of Finance officials say. The country's reserves are at their highest level since May 1989. Other sources say the Bank of Japan bought a record $8.5 billion through market intervention in August to halt the yen's surge against the dollar. Japan is believed to have resumed its position as the world's biggest holder of gold and forex reserves for the first time in more than three years, displacing Taiwan.

Updates on foreign exchange rates and share indexes are soon to be available in autos in the U.K. on the Trafficmaster Plus system developed by General Logistics Ltd. Trafficmaster provides motorists with real-time reports on freeway traffic speeds in south and central England using the Air Call paging network, but from October 1 forex rates and stock market prices will be available as well. The unit costs £351 plus a monthly subscription to cover the paging facility.

Barclays Bank Plc, Miami, is now using Opics, supplied by the Frustrum Group, Inc. of New York, for its foreign exchange processing. Opics is Frustrum's Windows-based PC/LAN treasury and capital markets system which processes front office and back office requirements. Frustrum says that Barclays' users were trained, their data converted and were in production nine days after the initial installation.

Sprintel Communications of the U.K. has launched a new broadcast service offering independent investors and traders a quotes screen for their PCs which displays financial information and news from most major markets. The Quotelink services cover foreign exchange and futures, together with other markets. It costs £495, plus VAT, for the hardware and software, with a £49 monthly subscription charge. Updates are broadcast every 30 seconds in London.