Is Crikey aware of the fact that the ASX is giving its Melbourne Investor Hour the flick at the end of this month (and I presume the equivalent in other states)?

For a long time, in the ASX theatre at 530 Collins St on a Wednesday from 12pm to 1pm and repeated from 1.10pm to 2.10pm, a guest speaker delivers a lecture. Each person who attends pays $5, and, having been to lots of them, I can safely say that there is a strong demand. I would estimate that around 200 people would attend both lectures.Total revenue would be around $1,000.

The spin given at last week’s lecture by the ASX’s presenter was that the ASX was “concentrating on internet based education.” Perhaps this translates as more expensive full-day seminars.

When I heard recently that the ASX was looking at ways of cutting costs (their share price was $15.61 a year ago now $22.30), I wondered whether they would be miserable enough to get rid of Investor Hour.

CRIKEY: New ASX CEO Tony D’Alosisio is certainly not showing a lot of sensitivity as he slashes and burns inside what is already Australia’s most lucrative government-sanctioned monopoly. The original cost-cutting program was announced in May, with 10% of ASX staff to be gone within the month. The ASX forecast a charge of up to $20 million for redundancies and other restructuring costs and clearly the education division has suffered a major hit.

ASX shares were 28c stronger at $22.68 this morning, meaning the original 606 stockbroking members who paid $25,000 for a slice of what was then a non-for-profit mutual, have now made a return of almost 200-fold with the capital value and dividend returns pushing $5 million for each and every one of them. They have no shame!