Credit Where It's Due

In my last post I said that TRE had, in its effort to meet volume goals, tilted its policies and procedures in favor of the Seller community. That is both a strategic and tactical decision whose logic I think we can understand whether or not we like it or agree with it.

Today I’d like to put issues of Exchange strategy aside for a moment and make a few points about nuts and bolts.

Today marks my six-month anniversary as an active Buyer (following two months acquiring some education as a very active observer).

And I have been an ACTIVE Buyer during that period.

As a percentage of the total dollar volume of auctions my activity hasn’t been a very significant factor. But as a percentage of the actual number of transactions, my activity has been significant. I say that to make the point that I speak from experience.

I’d like to share a bit of that experience:

--About two-thirds of the auctions I’ve purchased have, as of today, been paid-as-agreed; closed-out without the need for any action on my part after purchase.

--None of those that remain open give, as of today, any sign that there is a cause for concern.

--The auction platform, itself, works very well. It has been improved significantly during the past six months. There are many enhancements that could, and hopefully will, be made in the future. But the fact that it works as well as it does at this stage of the Exchange’s life is a tribute to its creators and to TRE.

--The Liquidity Desk operation in New York is professional and responsive. Questions are answered quickly and issues that need to be addressed get addressed.

--The Member Services group in New Orleans provides excellent service. They send out all the reports of awarded auctions, coordinate the flow of funding for auctions, report on payments received from Account Debtors, and generally act as the interface for all financial and accounting matters from the purchase of an auction until it is closed out.

Counting all of the individual transactions and reports generated by our trading activity over the past six months there have been literally hundreds of opportunities for errors in the accounting and funds-flow systems. There have been less than a handful of minor issues and not all of those were the responsibility of Member Services. In each case, the Member Services people have been responsive, professional and diligent in finding and correcting the problems.

--The Operations Department, as a whole, has also been quite helpful. I’ve had occasion to ask a number of questions that have been referred to Operations for response and the responses have been timely and to the point.

What’s MY point?

The TRE trading platform and its operations system WORK!

That’s a BIG thing and the Exchange is to be commended on its accomplishment.


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