Before the advent of exchange-traded funds and notes, there was indeed a bright line separating futures and securities. Different products traded on different exchanges, each with their own - and very different - regulatory schemes (recent moves to meld the markets are chronicled in "Proposed CFTC-SEC Merger Already Derailed?").

Now, however, a bevy of futures proxies trade on the New York Stock Exchange's Arca and Amex platforms. Not only that, futures themselves are now swapped at the corner of Broad and Wall Streets. Well, in truth, futures trade on the NYSE's electronic Liffe subsidiary. The exchange bought into the futures business when it acquired the smallish precious metals franchise of the Chicago Board of Trade this year. (The exchange's motivations are revealed in our interview with exchange CEO Duncan Niederauer at "NYSE Chief: Becoming A Competitive Futures Mart.")

The one-day conference is headlined by commodities guru and author Jim Rogers (modesty-in both talent and mien-prevents me from claiming top billing in spite of moderating a panel discussion on agriculture allocations).

This is bound to be an interesting shindig. Lots of luminaries are impaneled: Peter Schiff, the voluble honcho from Euro Pacific Capital who crossed swords with our Mike Norman in a webcast debate ("Clash of the Titans"); Kitco Bullion's senior analyst Jon Nadler; and the founder of GreenHaven Commodity Services, Ashmead Pringle, among others.

Even more interesting will be the artwork festooning the conference venue. If you follow the links to the conference site (www.insidecommoditiesconference.com/), you'll see the tagline for the get-together is "Positioning Your Portfolio in an Inflationary Environment."

If anything, the past month's market activity has been DE-flationary. That makes me wonder if production assistants are now busying themselves with Sharpies changing the wording on conference banners.

Monetary Inflation Vs. Gold