EDITORIAL PAGE Push button markets

What’s with the price of gold today? The Berlin Wall tumbles, the Soviet Union tries to turn a new page, oil jumps to US$40 per barrel (for a brief period, anyway) and war breaks out in the Persian Gulf. Not enough incentive, or hasthe game changed for investors? International brokerage firm James Capel of London, England, speculates that the technical innovations introduced during the last decade may now have investors looking elsewhere for their jollies. A decade ago, investingin oil meant purchasing a vast quantity of the commodity; today, oil futures and options can be bought and sold by pressing a few buttons. Communications are such that we now know almost immediately what is happening in what used to be remote corners of the globe. Press a few more buttons and effortlessly (physically, at least) move your holdings from one market to another. The commodity is out of sight but not out of mind. The excitement is in the play, not the possession.