Most important, they note, Washington Mutual specialized in option adjustable-rate mortgages — mortgages that let borrowers defer payments on interest and principal.
But ELS remains a highly specialized treatment option that is only available in a few centers and the optimal therapy is complex.
A number of companies have cropped up to present specialized streaming options.
One company they bailed out of was optionsXpress, an online securities brokerage that specializes in option trading.
Timber Hill, which trades stocks but specializes in options, made a $328 million profit, before taxes, in 2009.
In 2005 the CBOT became a subsidiary of a new public corporation, CBOT Holdings, and in 2007 the corporation merged with Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc., a financial futures exchange specializing in options, foreign currency futures, and interest rates.
The second is Bernie G. Schaeffer, whose firm Schaeffer's Investment Research specializes in options trading and investor sentiment.
While a handful of smaller U.S. exchanges exist today, they tend to specialize in options, and, notably in the case of the American Stock Exchange, exchange-traded funds.
In May 2006, near the peak of the housing boom, Wachovia paid $25.5 billion for Golden West Financial, a thrift that specialized in pay-option mortgages.
After weighting the pros and cons of each alternative, the authors' policy recommendation has focused on the third option (highly specialized centers followed by care in local hospitals).
