2015-04-16

First Read



Best of Both Worlds: Fidessa’s Steve Grob on Keeping Tech Costs Low
JohnLothianNews.com

With rapid changes in the financial industry, firms are challenged to keep their technology robust and resilient while at the same time being secure and compliant, says Steve Grob, director of group strategy for Fidessa. He spoke with John Lothian News at the FIA Boca conference about this technology balance as well as what companies like Fidessa are doing to address IT costs.
Watch the video »
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Eurex Exchange co-sponsors University of Chicago Midwest Trading Competition
Eurex
On 11 April 2015 Eurex Exchange has joined a number of trading and investment firms in supporting the University of Chicago Midwest Trading Competition. The competition took place at Chicago Innovation Exchange at UChicago and has attracted around 100 students from top-tier institutions across the United States. This year’s case studies covered three themes: options Market-Making, pairs trading, and Index Tracking.
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**** Look out for the University of Illinois trading team.

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FIA Releases SEF Tracker Report for February
FIA
FIA today published the latest issue of FIA SEF Tracker, a periodic report on trading activity taking place on swap execution facilities. This issue of FIA SEF Tracker includes data from February 2015 for interest rate, credit default and foreign exchange products. This issue also includes a spreadsheet containing the underlying data going back to January 2014.
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***** You have to release the ones you love and hope they will come home again. Off with you SEFs.

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Virtu or Vice? Fund Managers Face Dilemma Over Speed-Trading IPO
By Leslie Picker and Sam Mamudi, Bloomberg
Virtu Financial Inc. has plenty of attributes that IPO investors should clamor over: The high- frequency trader is profitable, growing and should benefit from an uptick in stock market volatility. There’s one major sticking point. Some can’t get over the idea lionized by Michael Lewis’s book “Flash Boys” — that the split-second trading strategies deployed by Virtu hurt the very fund managers who buy new shares.
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***DA: Pfft. In the end, the stock price will represent the present value of expected future cash flows, no different than any other stock.

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Elizabeth Warren Hammers The Endless Failures Of Wall Street Regulators
By Zach Carter, Huffington Post
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) assailed the nation’s top bank regulators on Wednesday for coddling Wall Street offenders and ducking the responsibilities Congress assigned them in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown.
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***** Elizabeth said something in this story I really liked.

“The opponents of financial reform have cast the debate as rules vs. markets, that somehow anyone who believes in rules is anti-market,” Warren told HuffPost. “Rules are not the enemy of markets. They protect markets from blowing up. The real fight isn’t between markets and rules. And it never has been. It’s between competitive capitalism and crony capitalism.”

ICAP CEO Spencer Says Firm Might Leave U.K. on Labour Win
by Richard Partington, Guy Johnson, Stephen Morris, Bloomberg
ICAP Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael Spencer said he would consider moving his firm abroad if Labour leader Ed Miliband wins Britain’s elections in May.
jlne.ws/1yviRXX

***** Will he be joining Alec Baldwin somewhere?

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Eurex – DerivSource-Webinar on Collateral Efficiency
At the webinar on 28 April, 10 a.m. ET, 3 p.m. BST and 4 p.m. CET, a panel of industry experts will discuss practical strategies for achieving collateral efficiency including the use of tools to improve collateral optimization, mobility and velocity. Attendees will gain insight into emerging best practices surrounding the use of market-available tools and services such as cross-margining, netting and more.
jlne.ws/1Ihz2IR

***** Collateral efficiency is really hot!

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Lead Stories

‘Groundhog Day’ Sets Tone for Assault on Europe’s Futures Giants
by Matthew Leising, John Detrixhe
Working to set up a futures exchange to compete with established rivals can sometimes resemble the plot of “Groundhog Day,” the movie in which Bill Murray’s character keeps repeating the same day until he gets it right.
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***** Matt Leising needs to stop watching Netflix.

Virtu IPO Tests Perceptions of High-Speed Trading; High-frequency trading firm prices shares at $19, high end of projected range
By BRADLEY HOPE, WSJ
When Virtu Financial Inc., starts trading Thursday, its performance will be a test of how markets view a firm that has been at the center of controversy around high-speed, computerized trading.
jlne.ws/1HaIOxw

Ben Bernanke Will Work With Citadel, a Hedge Fund, as an Adviser
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and ALEXANDRA STEVENSON, NY Times
For eight years, Ben S. Bernanke, the former Federal Reserve chairman, was steward of the world’s largest economy. Now he has signed on to advise one of Wall Street’s biggest hedge funds.
jlne.ws/1yxLHr6

***** Look for Ben Bernacke to be lunching in Ceres soon.

Fed has ‘tools’ for smooth rates lift-off
Sam Fleming in Washington, FT
A senior Federal Reserve official has expressed confidence that new levers being prepared by the US central bank to raise interest rates will work when needed — while acknowledging differences between senior officials over some key details.
jlne.ws/1yv9zez

****** SpaceX had a nice liftoff, it was the landing that was a http://jlne.ws/1FXFrvb}problem

Global stocks at record as Bund yields hit fresh low
Jamie Chisholm, Global Markets Commentator, FT
A global stock barometer is at record highs as ultra-easy central bank policy, delivering meagre sovereign bond yields, helps boost investor demand for shares.
jlne.ws/1yv9vvx

***** You have to risk your money somewhere if rates are negative.

BATS SUCCESSFULLY MIGRATES U.S. OPTIONS EXCHANGE TO NY5 DATA CENTER;100% of Customers Participate in Migration; Market Share Finished at 9.2% Tuesday
BATS Global Markets (BATS), a leading operator of exchanges and services for financial markets globally, reported the successful and complete migration of the BATS Options market to the Equinix NY5 data center in Secaucus, N.J., on Monday, April 13.
jlne.ws/1DIhGVB

***** Bats made solid contact with this move.

A ‘flash crash’ or two gives needed jolt
Ralph Atkins in London, FT
“I was flabbergasted, I could not believe it.” The veteran portfolio manager at a top US fund was this week recalling the US Treasury “flash crash” exactly six months ago, when yields in the world’s largest government debt market swung wildly in a matter of minutes.
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A Navy Seal, a Yacht Captain, and the Other People Billionaires Trust to Manage Their Money
by Margaret Collins, Bloomberg
Managing the life of Sergey Brin is big business. Through Bayshore Global Management, the Google Inc. co-founder has hired former bankers and philanthropy experts to help manage his $30.1 billion fortune. He’s employed a former Navy Seal and SWAT team veteran for security, and a yacht captain to handle his aquatic endeavors. A fitness coordinator, a photographer and archivist help run his life.
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America’s Most-Wanted Swiss Bankers Aren’t Hard to Find; At least 21 financial advisers in Switzerland charged with aiding American tax dodgers are at large
by Jesse Drucker, Bloomberg
With its tan marble floors and leather-clad reception desk, the staid Zurich offices of the Julius Baer Group, one of Switzerland’s largest private banks, are an unlikely place to find an alleged fugitive from American justice. And yet it’s here that I meet Fabio Frazzetto. Almost four years ago a federal grand jury in Manhattan indicted Frazzetto, a longtime client adviser for the bank, charging him with conspiring to help dozens of wealthy Americans conceal hundreds of millions of dollars from the Internal Revenue Service by using undeclared accounts, code names, and foreign relatives.
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EBS sets sights on running central system for FX fix
BY PATRICK GRAHAM, Reuters
Currency trading platform EBS has been approached by major banks to provide a computerised system removing much of the human element behind a scandal over the manipulation of currency benchmarks by lenders, a senior EBS manager said.
jlne.ws/1EJuThD

Anti-Wall Street senator lambasts bank non-prosecution deals
By Barney Jopson and Gina Chon in Washington, FT
Elizabeth Warren, the anti-Wall Street senator, has lashed out at US regulators for being soft on misbehaving banks, describing settlements that extracted billion dollar fines as a “slap on the wrist” and demanding that banks be put on trial.
jlne.ws/1ytGVdU

Regulatory

Former Top Financial Regulator Worked at Collapsed Hedge Fund Heather Capital; John Bourbon was a director of Isle of Man-based Heather from 2006, according to corporate filings
By LAURENCE FLETCHER, WSJ
A former top financial regulator who wrote a book on corporate governance worked as a director of Heather Capital, the $600 million hedge fund whose collapse has sparked a police investigation.
jlne.ws/1NPldbk

Expanding Oversight of Active, Proprietary Trading Firms: SEC Proposes Amendments to Rule 15b9-1
by Yevedzo Chitiga, Jeremy Moorehouse, Bruce Newman, Andre Owens, Cherie Weldon of WilmerHale Contact
On March 25, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) proposed an amendment to Rule 15b9-1 (the “Proposal”) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) that, if adopted, would close an historical exception to the general requirement that registered broker-dealers must become members of a registered national securities association (“Association”), effectively, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”).1 In doing so, the SEC intends to require SEC-registered broker-dealers that are members of one or more securities exchanges to also become members of FINRA, subject to FINRA rules and oversight. According to the SEC, FINRA membership would help accomplish a key regulatory goal: enhancing the oversight of off-exchange and cross-market trading activity.2
http://jlne.ws/1J6m0Oi

United States: A Practical Guide For The Buy-Side To The U.S. Margin Rules For
Article by Eileen Bannon, Holland & Knight via Mondaq
What the Buy-Side Needs to Know about the OTC Margin Rules
jlne.ws/1CRaod2

SEC Staff and FINRA Issue Report on National Senior Investor Initiative
SEC
With the Social Security Administration estimating that each day for the next 15 years, an average of 10,000 Americans will turn 65, the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today issued a report to help broker-dealers assess, craft, or refine their policies and procedures for investors as they prepare for and enter into retirement.
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William H. Donaldson Named Chairman of Financial Services Volunteer Corps
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED, NY Times
William H. Donaldson, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a longtime Wall Street grandee, will become chairman of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps, the organization is expected to announce on Wednesday.
jlne.ws/1cxk5Z3

Federal Judge Asserts Purview Over SEC Judge Challenges
By ARUNA VISWANATHA, WSJ
A New York federal judge handed down a mixed ruling on Wednesday that could give some ammunition to the Securities and Exchange Commission in its controversial efforts to route more cases through its in-house court.
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Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) Rulemaking and National Market System (NMS) Plans
SEC

BATS: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change to Amend the Content of the BATS One Feed Under Rule 11.22(j) to Include Consolidated Volume for all Listed Equity Securities (Release No. 34-74726; File No. SR-BATS-2015-29; April 14, 2015); see also Exhibit 5

BYX: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change to Amend the Content of the BATS One Feed Under Rule 11.22(i) to Include Consolidated Volume for all Listed Equity Securities (Release No. 34-74723; File No. SR-BYX-2015-22; April 14, 2015); see also Exhibit 5

NASDAQ: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change to Amend NASDAQ Rules 7014 and 7018 (Release No. 34-74725; File No. SR-NASDAQ-2015-032; April 14, 2015); see also Exhibit 5

NASDAQ OMX BX: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change by NASDAQ OMX BX, Inc. Relating to Member Application (Release No. 34-74724; File No. SR-BX-2015-017; April 14, 2015); see also Exhibit 5

NASDAQ OMX BX: Exhibit 3 (Release No. 34-74724; File No. SR-BX-2015-017; April 14, 2015)

NYSE Arca: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change Amending the NYSE Arca Options Fee Schedule (Release No. 34-74727; File No. SR-NYSEArca-2015-30; April 14, 2015); see also Exhibit 5

jlne.ws/1eCTnOv

ASIC update on Wealth Management Project – Investigation into charging of advice fees without providing advice
ASIC
ASIC today provided an update on its Wealth Management Project which is focusing on the conduct of the largest financial advice firms.

Exchanges & Trading Facilities

March 2015 Review – Bloomberg out in front
Clarus Financial Technology
Bloomberg are #1 for SEF liquidity in Q1 2015 whilst Tradeweb saw the highest overall volumes. We saw record USD Swap volumes reported to the SDRs in March 2015, with our review highlighting increasing compression activity. The great month for the industry was rounded-out with over 60% of volumes traded across a SEF.
jlne.ws/1awC0h5

EnterNext launches initiative to create flexible financing solutions for the Dutch and Belgian markets
Euronext
EnterNext, the Euronext subsidiary dedicated to promoting and growing the market for small and medium sized companies today announced the launch of a commercial solution specifically designed to simplify Dutch small companies’ access to capital and provide a broader investor base for Belgian and Dutch family businesses and entrepreneurs. The initiative will draw the two financial market places of The Netherlands and Belgium closer, joining the stakeholders from the two countries, ensuring increased liquidity and more cost efficiencies for Euronext clients.
jlne.ws/1OGCKPT

Information on the termination of trading of agricultural index futures contracts at Eurex Exchange – Ruling by the Exchange Supervisory Authority of the State of Hesse
Eurex
As already announced in Eurex Circular 256/14, the Management Board of Eurex Deutschland and the Executive Board of Eurex Zürich AG decided to terminate trading of agricultural index futures contracts. Trading in the six existing agricultural index futures contracts on European Processing Potato Futures (FEPP), Hog Futures (FHOG), Piglet Futures (FPIG), Butter Futures (FBUT), Skimmed Milk Powder Futures (FSMP) and European Whey Powder Futures (FWHY) is planned to continue at Eurex Exchange until 8 May 2015,end of trading.
jlne.ws/1aZpxmu

LME closer to coveted China market as stock program launches
BY JOSEPHINE MASON, Reuters
The London Metal Exchange expects to make its first foray into the lucrative Chinese market in the next year or so as a much-anticipated stock program pries open the world’s biggest commodities market, its chief executive officer said in an interview.
jlne.ws/1PRJR9P

Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

Tactical Considerations of Hedging Currency Exposures
Kawaller & Company
Traders may offer valuable lessons to hedgers.
Hedgers should consider a hedging process that requires terminating losing hedges before their natural termination dates.
If an organization understands the nature of its exposures and their hedges, outcomes should be reasonably predictable.
It’s not easy to forecast foreign exchange rates. Sometimes large exchange rate moves are abruptly reversed, and sometimes, after relatively brief pauses, the trend reemerges. Moreover, prices frequently stutter and change direction in a seemingly random manner, often with non-trivial counter movements during trends that may persist for years.
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Potter: Fed May Have to Ramp Up Reverse Repos at Liftoff
Bloomberg Business
When the Fed decides to raise rates for the first time since 2006, Potter’s group faces the challenge of executing that directive in a banking system that has been flooded with $2.6 trillion in excess reserves over the last six years.
jlne.ws/1ELeFF1

Four Ways Rich People Can Still Hide Their Money
Bloomberg
The Swiss bank account is no longer so secret, but there are other ways to keep assets away from prying eyes
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Analyst: Consumers Love Netflix More Than TV, and the Stock Will Go to $900; An analyst conducted a survey of over 2000 consumers
by Julie Verhage
Netflix is surging to all time highs in premarket trading after reporting strong earnings after the market closed on Wednesday. A slew of firms across Wall Street are increasing their price targets today, but so far FBR Capital Markets is by far the most optimistic. The firm raised its price target to $900 a share from $400, implying more than a 60 percent upside for the stock, which closed yesterday at $475.
jlne.ws/1JMxR5e

Bernanke signs on as advisor at Citadel: NYT
By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
Ben Bernanke, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, plans to work with Citadel Investment Group as a senior advisor, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The $25 billion hedge fund, founded by billionaire Kenneth Griffin, is among Wall Street’s biggest. Specifically, Bernanke will provide Citadel with analysis on monetary issues and global economics, and also meet with the group’s investors. Bernanke said in an interview that he was “sensitive” to the public’s impressions of a “revolving door” between the Wall Street and regulators. He chose Citadel because “it is not regulated by the Federal Reserve and I won’t be doing lobbying of any sort.” Bernanke added that he was “looking for an opportunity to use my skills and knowledge,” and said Citadel was “an interesting firm.”
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US IPOs point to boost in deals demand
By Nicole Bullock in New York, FT
Three US initial public offerings priced on Wednesday at the top of their ranges in what will be a test of the health of the listings market this year.
jlne.ws/1NPi2QT

Banks & Brokers

TD Ameritrade Continues its Stock Plan Services Expansion Through Strategic Relationship with Solium
TD Ameritrade
Ameritrade, Inc. (“TD Ameritrade”), a broker-dealer subsidiary of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (NYSE: AMTD), today announced a relationship with Solium Capital Inc. (“Solium”) (TSX: SUM), one of the leading providers of software-as-a-service for global equity-based incentive plan administration, financial reporting and compliance.
jlne.ws/1zh2nOf

Goldman Sachs Profit Beats Estimates on Rise in Trading Revenue
By Michael J. Moore, Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reported first-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates as the firm posted a bigger increase in revenue from trading debt, commodities and currencies than its rivals and the highest merger-advisory revenue since the financial crisis.
jlne.ws/1cyGTYm

Clearing & Settlement

Omgeo Alert Automation Extended to Global Custodian and Prime Broker
Omgeo
Omgeo, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and the global standard for institutional post-trade efficiency, today announced the launch of new global custodian and prime broker automation capabilities in Omgeo ALERT, the industry’s largest and most compliant online global database for the maintenance and communication of account information and SSIs, to further reduce risk. The release, ALERT 5.0, includes the Global Custodian Direct feature, which enables global custodians and prime brokers to electronically maintain timely and accurate SSI data in ALERT, on behalf of their clients. Currently, investment managers perform these updates manually.
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Hurricane Sandy costs US depository $24m
Financial News
A hurricane that tore through the US east coast in 2012 has cost the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation nearly $24 million to date, much of which has been incurred by restoring physical stock certificates.
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LME Clear’s impact on the clearing industry
Cinnober
jlne.ws/1yxLZOL

Indexes & Products

Don’t Rush to Buy Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds
Consumer Reports
Take a look at the funds page of the business section of your newspaper (assuming you still use a print newspaper, and it still has a business section). You’re likely to notice funds with names that include the word “Ultra” or “3X” appearing in the leaders and laggards tables. Those funds (traditional mutual funds as well as exchange-traded funds), and others like them, are known as leveraged funds. In 2015, at least 235 leveraged ETFs were available to investors.
jlne.ws/1ELi5r9

ProShares Regional Banking ETFs Change Index and Fund Names
Yahoo Finance UK
ProShares, a premier provider of alternative ETFs, today announced that its regional banking equity ETFs will be changing their benchmark index and fund names, effective April 16, 2015. The ETFs’ new index, S&P Regional Banks Select Industry Index, is the largest U.S. regional banking index in terms of ETF assets.
jlne.ws/1ELhSUX

Why dividend investors need to start paying attention to emerging markets
The Globe and Mail
Emerging markets play a vital and expanding role in the global economy. According to IMF estimates, the combined output of emerging economies is expected to account for more than half of the world’s GDP by 2019 on the basis of purchasing power, representing nearly twice its share in 1990.
jlne.ws/1ELhXb2

BSE’s index arm launches 19 new indices
Business Standard News
Asia Index Private Limited, the joint venture between S&P Dow Jones Indices and BSE, has launched 19 new indices. This includes the S&P BSE AllCap index, some sectoral indices as well as three separate strategy indices.
jlne.ws/1ELi1YC

GDP: Getting Difficult to Predict
S&P Dow Jones Indices
There has been a comparable oil price drop every five ten years that could be blamed on a demand crisis or a flood of supply – or some combination of the two. The gold:oil ratio that represents how many barrels of oil it takes to buy an ounce of gold is also telling a story about a supply driven drop. The very high gold:oil ratio now is clearly driven by the oil drop whereas gold has maintained its value. If oil prices remain low versus gold for an extended period of time, as was the case in the 1986 period, the elevated gold:oil ratio may indicate that the energy production boom (whether U.S. or Saudi Arabia) is much more responsible for oil’s price collapse than fears of global deflation, lack of demand, and recession.
jlne.ws/1ELj76E

Technology

Interactive Data Announces Latest Release of eSignal Now Available
PR Newswire
eSignal, a division of Interactive Data and a leading provider of real-time financial data and solutions designed for professional and individual users, today announced the release of eSignal version 12.1, its most advanced release ever. The all-new eSignal platform provides active traders and investors with a significantly expanded suite of innovative new features and indicators including: advanced market screening tools, 17 new Apps, social media tools designed to allow users to share graphs and charts with their community, and an interactive welcome dashboard.
jlne.ws/1awzbMN

Bitcoin, Blockchain and the Technology Revolution
by Jeffrey Kutler, The Futurist
As with any new product, Bitcoin’s success will unltimately be defined by market acceptance. One study, by U. jlne.ws/1awB1xb

London stakes its claim as global bitcoin hub
BY JEMIMA KELLY, Reuters)
London, center of the $5-trillion-a-day global currency market, now wants to be home to a controversial upstart – bitcoin.
jlne.ws/1FVkbDt

ANZ boss ‘paranoid’ about fintech
InvestorDaily
With financial services undergoing “incredibly quick and rapid” technological change, the appropriate mindset for a major bank is one of “paranoia”, says ANZ’s chief executive.
jlne.ws/1ELjJJh

Enforcement

CFTC Orders Tennessee-based Commodity Pool Operator Hope Advisors LLC to Pay a $100,000 Civil Monetary Penalty for Registration and Reporting Violations
CFTC
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today entered an Order requiring Hope Advisors LLC (HAL), a Brentwood, Tennessee, Commodity Pool Operator (CPO), to pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty for acting as a CPO without registering with the CFTC, as required, and for providing monthly statements to pool participants that failed to show all the information required by Commission Regulation.
jlne.ws/1OEtb3W

Environmental & Energy

German Solar Records May Keep Traders Busy on Weekends
by Weixin Zha, Stefan Nicola, Bloomberg
Germany’s electricity traders may face busy weekends as sunny weather positions the nation for a season of solar power records.
jlne.ws/1DL438h

In California a lack of water encroaches on castles in the air
Edwin Heathcote, FT
Water has shaped the state of California and its biggest city, Los Angeles. Cities usually take time to grow but Los Angeles became the world’s largest overnight. A century ago, it annexed the San Fernando Valley, part of a ruse to gain access to the Owens Valley Aqueduct. The desert settlement suddenly became a city rich in water, with both its own supplies and the run-off from Sierra Nevada mountain snow. Today, after three years of drought, California is in the midst of a full-blown political and environmental crisis, with restrictions imposed across the state. So, in a verdant city bordered by desert where dreams of abundance have always been a global attraction, what went wrong?
jlne.ws/1CRcolE

Europe’s Carbon Capture Disaster
OZY
Europe, which obviously prides itself on its green cred, once boasted ambitious plans around CCS, which currently generates around $10 billion globally a year in spending. But the region got dragged into a futile policy debate pitting industry against climate change. On paper the idea’s a slam dunk for the continent. In fact, it was first championed there as the best way to avert climate Armageddon while basking in the most enviable shades of green — eco-friendly and cash-rich. But actually allowing big polluters to burn cheap fossil fuels before snatching up and burying their global warming gases deep in the earth hasn’t caught on.
jlne.ws/1ELkCBB

Asia-Pacific

Local retail participation in HKEx’s stock market remains high
HKEx
Local retail participation in the Hong Kong stock market remained high in number terms and in percentage of adult population, according to the Retail Investor Survey 2014 conducted by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx). The survey also found that retail investors in general had traded more in value terms, both per transaction and in aggregate for the year, in the Hong Kong stock market than they did in 2011.
jlne.ws/1GNVmfL

Improvement in the number of women directors on SGX Listcos in 2014
SGX
SingaLaunch of stock index futures offers new tools for short selling
Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai, FT
Amid a run-up in Chinese stock prices that has sparked warnings of a bubble, two new derivative products that offer investors tools to take bearish bets on the market debuted in Shanghai on Thursday.
jlne.ws/1IO3Bcp

Hong Kong in no rush to switch dollar peg
Jennifer HughesA, FT
Pity the Hong Kong authorities. No one is quite as trapped between the conflicting forces of China’s slowdown and the expected US interest rate rise as a territory with its future tied to China and its currency pegged to the US dollar.
jlne.ws/1FVjWIA

HKEx’s large investor base not comparable with SGX’s
Today Online
The report “HKEx is world’s largest exchange operator as SGX languishes” (April 15) paints an unfair comparison between the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEx) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX). It is like comparing an apple to an orange.
jlne.ws/1NPBdtP

Frontier Markets

Frontier markets have plenty to offer investors
AsiaOne Business News
Investing in frontier markets can come with a higher degree of volatility than more established markets, but to my team and me, they offer exciting potential. Some of yesterday’s small, agrarian economies have transformed themselves into global powers today – China being the most impressive example.
jlne.ws/1ELkWAr

Emerging Markets Of Tomorrow – The Biggest Unknown
Jeremy Schwartz, Wisdom Tree Investments, in ValueWalk
This week Professor Siegel and I chatted with Gavin Serkin, Emerging Markets (EM) Editor at Bloomberg News. Gavin recently wrote a book called Frontier: Exploring the Top Ten Emerging Markets of Tomorrow. The book contains an excellent narrative of Gavin’s trips and is well worth reading for anyone exploring investments in the region. We also spoke to Worth Wray, Chief Strategist at Mauldin Economics, whose current focus is also on EM and the implications of a stronger U.S. dollar.
jlne.ws/1ELl6rp

Emerging markets must increase resilience, address domestic weaknesses
Business Standard News
Global financial stability risks have risen since October 2014, and have rotated to parts of the financial system where they are harder to assess and harder to address, according to the International Monetary Fund’s latest Global Financial Stability Report.
jlne.ws/1ELlpme

FTIL’s exit from MCX-SX is complete
ET Markets
Crisis-hit Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) today said it has completed the sale of its entire 5 per cent stake in MCX-SX for nearly Rs 89 crore, thus exiting the bourse.
jlne.ws/1ELlOoG

READ MORE: John Lothian Newsletter: ‘Groundhog Day’ Sets Tone for Assault on Europe’s Futures Giants; irtu IPO Tests Perceptions of High-Speed Trading; Ben Bernanke Will Work With Citadel, a Hedge Fund, as an Adviser.

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