He knows that the transaction will not take place early in the day.

By various accounts, this transaction took place between 1820 and 1832.

Another point to watch for is how long the whole transaction will take.

Buyers were so few that the market was open for nearly 25 minutes before the first transaction took place.

"But all the transactions involved will take longer than that," he said.

The speed with which transactions have taken place has also been up for debate.

The whole transaction will take no more than a few hours, officials said.

Trade and financial transactions should take place on a normal commercial basis.

So far, there is no evidence that such additional transactions took place.

More important, he said, transactions take at least a minute.