Press Release: Great Contract Challenge

MarketsWiki launches the “Great Contract Challenge”
 
Chicago, IL – June 2, 2008 – MarketsWiki, an online open-source knowledge base focused on global financial markets, Monday announced the launch of “The Great Contract Challenge,” an innovative way to create new derivatives contracts.
Using a “wisdom of the crowds” approach, the Challenge invites investors, professionals and traders to utilize MarketsWiki to develop new derivatives contracts for the equity, options, futures and OTC markets using MarketsWiki’s open-source website software. Based on the same software that runs the popular Wikipedia online encyclopedia, the technology allows users to contribute, edit and collaborate on the website. 
MarketsWiki participants are being asked to use their knowledge and gut intuition to formulate contract notions, refine the concepts of others and mold the next great exchange-traded or OTC derivatives products. As opposed to proprietary exchange-generated, tested and marketed contracts, MarketsWiki provides a fresh complementary platform on which users can brainstorm and introduce new ideas to the marketplace. 
 
“MarketsWiki is more than just a site for markets-related financial information,” said John Lothian, president & CEO of John Lothian & Co. “It is an open and democratic forum that allows anyone to participate. Any MarketsWiki contributor with unique ideas can put them out there for the entire world to see. We have readers in over 100 countries who no doubt have been thinking of contracts that could become the next S&P 500, or crude oil futures or carbon contract.”
 
MarketsWiki has created four categories: equities/ETFs, options, futures and OTC contracts. The contest is open to anyone who is a paid subscriber of the John Lothian Newsletter or Environmental Markets Newsletter.
 
The winning contract ideas will be chosen by a vote from readers of the John Lothian Newsletter and Environmental Markets Newsletter and announced during the Futures Industry Association Expo Conference in November. Several exchanges have agreed to consider listing the new contracts deemed viable. 
 
The challenge follows similar open-source efforts in other industries. In the highly competitive and proprietary software industry, Linus Torvalds brought forth his now famous Linux operating system for all to see, improve and ultimately use for the betterment of the humankind. MarketsWiki would like to see such collaboration and innovation with its challenge.
== About MarketsWiki.com ==
 
MarketsWiki.com is a collaborative informational site launched in January 2008 by John Lothian & Co., with the goal of being the most comprehensive source for financial information on exchanges, events, products and people in the industry. The site has more than 2,200 pages of content available to anyone and has received more than 500,000 page views since the project began. 
== About John J. Lothian & Company ==
John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. is an NFA registered Commodity Trading Advisor, publisher and consulting firm. It is wholly owned by John J. Lothian. It is the publisher of the John Lothian Newsletter and Environmental Markets Newsletter. The John Lothian Newsletter is a daily email briefing about the futures, securities, options, environmental and related OTC markets and industries. It is offered in a voluntary pay format. Environmental Markets Newsletter is a daily email briefing about the growing global environmental related markets and is edited by Jim Kharouf. Environmental Markets is a paid subscription newsletter and includes a full copy of the daily John Lothian Newsletter. 
 
Media Contact:
 
John Lothian, publisher of John J. Lothian & Co. 312-203-5515, johnlothian@johnlothian.com.