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Actually our entire infrastructure has moved to ICE Chat/IM. But that made the most sense since all our trades go through ICE.Thus the chicken/egg debate rages on

Actually our entire infrastructure has moved to ICE Chat/IM. But that made the most sense since all our trades go through ICE.Thus the chicken/egg debate rages on

AIM is still being used by some utilities to initiate power trading. Archiving companies such as Smarsh won't be able to support this product if they rely on OSCAR to broker the connection. Archiving these conversations is necessary for legal reasons in case of a dispute between utilities. Other Instant Message methods are also supported by Smarsh, such as via ICE (InterContinental Exchange) Instant Messaging, which is where utilities will most likely migrate to if AIM really does kill all third-party access.

Smarsh IM Archiving
ICE Instant Messaging

While mainstream consumers have long since moved on from AIM commodities traders still rely on it as their primary IM client between brokers. And since trading falls under the purview of the Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) legislation must be recorded. Although AIM has a conversation history feature it cannot be centrally administrated. This has led to a third party IM recording industry. If this change cuts off these third parties access to the server then traders will not be allowed to use AIM and there will be a scramble to find an alternative. Since Intercontinental Exchange's ICE chat already communicates with AIM servers many firms have moved to it. But this might also affect ICE chat's ability to connect to AIM servers.

these days about the only Java applets on the web are malware

You mean like Intercontinental Exchange's WebICE? A multi-billion dollar commodities trading platform.

these days about the only Java applets on the web are malware

You mean like Intercontinental Exchange's WebICE? A multi-billion dollar commodities trading platform.

One of the largest commodity trading platforms (Intercontinental Exchange) is written in JAVA and I can assure you speed is what trading is all about. If a JAVA program is slow then perhaps the developer needs to look at optimizing their code.

... prevent Iraq setting up a Euro-ba[s]ed petroleum exchange, ... the price of the dollar is pinned to the price of oil by the fact that almost all oil sales of any note are done in dollars.

The "lead" crude oil contract is a US-based product, but the European runner-up is still traded in USD and not EUR. If Iraq tried to force trading in a different currency by setting up their own exchange, they would still have to draw enough trading interest to unseat the other two contracts.

How many high performant apps have you seen written in Java

I haven't seen many but the one I have seen is pretty darned impressive.

Even better, look at at the trade weighted exchange index maintained by the Federal Reserve. Or the ICE dollar index.

I read Greenberger's testimony, and here's the important part of what he said:

ICE, [unlike NYMEX,] operates with no regulatory oversight, no obligation to ensure its products are traded in a fair and orderly manner, and no obligation to prevent excessive speculation. [...] As a result, NYMEX's instructions to Amaranth did nothing to reduce Amaranth's size, but simply caused Amaranth's trading to move from a regulated market to an unregulated one.

So in a market where there are no CFTC rules or government oversight, there is speculation. Surprise surprise. But ICE is not where oil is physically settled. ICE WTI (West Texas Intermediate) is cash settled against the prevailing market price for US light sweet crude (what's traded on NYMEX). If the speculators are fleeing to ICE because they can't get their way on NYMEX, then my point still holds: the price of NYMEX light sweet crude (LSC) should decline right before front-month expiration because the speculators have to sell to avoid taking delivery (which they don't have to worry about on ICE), and the price between NYMEX and unregulated, OTC crude prices should decouple. NYMEX crude should be priced on pure supply-demand on the expiration day, so either real buyers are supporting the price or the speculators are somehow dodging delivery.