Everything's bigger in Texas, including the debacles. When the world's largest energy trading group, Enron, deposed Texaco as the world's largest bankruptcy in December, shock waves rippled out from the epicenter in Houston through exchanges in New York and overseas. How the futures exchanges and clearinghouses respond will impact traders around the world. Out of every adversity, it is said, comes the seed of an equal or greater benefit. If so, the demise of formerly high-flying trading and logistics giant Enron has left a fertile field indeed―especially if you're a regulated exchange or clearinghouse, or someone who trades on one. "Every major energy exchange in the world set new volume records the weeks before Enron went bankrupt (on Dec. 2)," says Martin Suuessman, an electricity trader with regional German provider Energie Baden-Wurttemberg (EnBW). "It's difficult to pin that all on Enron, but I'm sure some German players who were nervous about their exposure shifted positions to the European Energy Exchange (EEX), where they have the clearinghouse as a central counterparty."
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