First Read
Long run: Jack Schwager talks traders, old and new
JohnLothianNews.com
Jack Schwager’s career runs from pre-financial futures markets to author of the Markets Wizard books to an online start-up today. As the recipient of the CTA Expo’s 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award in New York in April, he spoke with Jim Kharouf, editor-in-chief of John Lothian News about what he knows about about top traders and his new venture, Fundseeder, an online platform for the next generation of market wizards.
For Schwager, top traders don’t just post profits, but have great risk management as well.
“It doesn’t have to be complicated at all,” Schwager said of risk management systems. “Most risk management can be achieved with some very, very simple rules.”
Watch the video »
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Out of Options Motorcycle Club Raises Thousands for Children’s Charities
Sarah Rudolph, JLN
Earlier in this space we wrote about the Out of Options Motorcycle Club, which was planning to ride from the New York area up to Maine and then down to Miami Beach for the Options Industry Conference. Well, they completed their ride and raised thousands of dollars for both St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and the Babies Heart Fund.
It was the third such trip for the four riders – Bill Ryan of the NYSE, Barry Nobel of Nasdaq OMX PHLX, Joe Valenza of Goldman Sachs and Paul Jiganti of TD Ameritrade (who rode from Chicago to Virginia Beach and then to Miami). With all three trips the club raised a total of about $100,000 in donations to St. Jude’s and slightly more than $5,000 for the Babies Heart Fund, according to Bill Ryan.
Donations came from people who had heard about the ride from the Motorcycle Club’s emails, tweets, and Facebook postings, as well as by word of mouth. The majority of those who donated were in the options business, Ryan said.
St. Jude’s is better-known and so received more donations than the somewhat younger Babies Heart Fund, he said. The research hospital provides treatment, housing, food and transportation for children with cancer and their families, without charge.
According to Ryan, when they develop a treatment protocol they share it with everyone who needs it. “And they run on donations only, so they don’t have to have fundraisers that take 20 percent. It all goes to the research,” he said.
The Babies Heart Fund was founded in 1986 by the family members of a young patient at Columbia University Medical Center in New York who were so impressed with the care given to their child that they wanted to give back and help the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, according to the fund’s web site.
The inclusion of Babies Heart Fund was inspired by Molly McGregor, marketing officer for the International Securities Exchange, whose son was born with a heart problem and was treated successfully at Columbia.
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Futures for Kids Day kicks off at LSE
Futures & Options World
The futures industry has come together Friday to support market charity, Futures for Kids, beginning this morning with the London Stock Exchange dedicating the iconic market open ceremony to the charity. While firms, trustees, supporters and media attended the market open, across London the Futures for Kids Walk to Work was also beginning – a 30 mile walk into the city. More than 70 participants are taking part in the walk this year, including a team from FOW.
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Derivatives firms unite for Futures for Kids day
The Trade News
To mark the inaugural Futures for Kids day, the charity backed by some of the biggest firms in the derivatives industry opened the London Stock Exchange this morning as it looks to build on the £2 million it has already raised. The charity was launched in 2008 by a group of individuals from the futures and options industry in order to provide a focus to channel funds to children’s charities at home and abroad.
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***JK: Also, as reported in yesterday’s newsletter, a group here in Chicago is walking 600 stairs for FFK Day. Among today’s stair masters of the universe are: Steve Chivers, Russell Levens, Ian Grieves, Pete Hutchison, along with Nick Garrow and Pierre Tamisier.
***DA: And, lest we not forget, FFK cites that London City workers spend, on average, GBP 10.59 a day on coffee, lunch and miscellany. They suggest we should all bring a sack lunch, make our own coffee, and take the ten-and-a-half quid (about $16) and donate to the organization
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SGX Bull Charge Charity Golf raises $260,000
Singapore Exchange
More than $260,000 was raised at Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) Bull Charge Charity Golf today, which was participated by over 130 golfers at Tanah Merah Country Club.
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***** Singapore can do charity too!
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Are We Headed for an Egg Shortage?
by Lydia Mulvany, Bloomberg
Joe Greco, who’s been churning out cookies and cakes for 27 years, usually uses about 600 pounds of liquid eggs a week at his bakery near Chicago. Now, his freezer has seven times that amount because Greco worries that record prices are about to go even higher.
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***** Time for the Butter and Egg exchange to get back to its roots.
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FT.com video: “Clearing houses – too big to fail?”
Eurex
Philip Stafford, FT Trading Room editor, uses, amongst others, Deutsche Börse charts to look at how regulators are tackling systemic risk and what problems for market participants are arising from this.
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***** You had me at Philip Stafford and video.
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Lead Stories
Intercontinental Exchange Threatens to List New Cotton Contract Outside U.S.
MoneyBeat – WSJ
Intercontinental Exchange Inc. is threatening to list a new global cotton-futures contract on an exchange outside the U.S. if Congress doesn’t approve changes to a 99-year-old law that has stalled its debut. The contract has been under development since December 2013 but has run into several legal and logistical hurdles. The exchange is lobbying members of Congress to amend the Cotton Futures Act so that the derivative instrument can begin trading in the third quarter, said Benjamin Jackson, president and chief operating officer of ICE Futures U.S.
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US ‘superior’ to Europe on futures margin
FT.com
The head of the main US derivatives regulator on Thursday launched a passionate defence of its rules, describing European concerns about some of the agency’s standards as “dead wrong”.
Timothy Massad, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told US lawmakers that the agency had proved that US rules to protect clearing of derivatives were “superior” to Europe’s as the two sides struggle to end a two-year spat over recognition of each other’s rules.
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CFTC says CME directed to beef up ‘spoofing’ enforcement
Reuters
The top U.S. derivatives regulator said on Thursday that his agency has directed exchange market operator CME Group Inc to beef up its enforcement staff and develop plans to detect manipulative “spoofing” tactics. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Tim Massad discussed the agency’s recommendations to CME in prepared testimony before the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees the regulator.
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SEC a stumbling block in banks’ forex guilty pleas: sources
Reuters
Banks want assurances from U.S. regulators that they will not be barred from certain businesses before agreeing to plead guilty to criminal charges over the manipulation of foreign exchange rates, causing a delay in multibillion-dollar settlements, people familiar with the matter said.
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Decoding the Enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto and the Birth of Bitcoin
NYTimes.com
It is one of the great mysteries of the digital age. The hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto, the elusive creator of Bitcoin, has captivated even those who think the virtual currency is some sort of online Ponzi scheme. A legend has emerged from a jumble of facts: Someone using the name Satoshi Nakamoto released the software for Bitcoin in early 2009 and communicated with the nascent currency’s users via email — but never by phone or in person. Then, in 2011, just as the technology began to attract wider attention, the emails stopped. Suddenly, Satoshi was gone, but the stories grew larger.
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Pimco Pulls Out of Stock Strategies; Move, including the departure of its chief investment officer of global equities, is the latest setback for the firm in stock investing
By GREGORY ZUCKERMAN, KIRSTEN GRIND and MIKE CHERNEY, WSJ
Pacific Investment Management Co. said it would exit from two of its equity strategies and say goodbye to its chief investment officer of global equities, the latest setback for the bond behemoth’s long-running effort to expand in the world of stock-fund investing.
SEC Reviews Dubious Avon Bid; Purported offer came in a government filing, sent shares up over 20%; company sees it as hoax
By LIZ HOFFMAN, GILLIAN TAN and DANA CIMILLUCA, WSJ
What appears to be a bogus filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission claimed that Avon Products Inc. was the target of a takeover bid, sending the embattled beauty-products company’s stock soaring on Thursday and leaving the agency looking for answers.
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Boiler Rooms Meet Boardrooms as Scammers Invade London City
by Neil Callanan, Bloomberg
From the champagne bar atop Tower 42, there’s a clear view of the City of London, where some of the world’s largest financial crimes have been engineered.
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Perfect Insider Traders Got Caught
By Matt Levine, Bloomberg
Two things that I say a lot around here are:
If you have inside information about an upcoming merger, don’t buy short-dated out-of-the-money call options on the target, and Boy a lot of people enjoy both playing golf and insider trading, don’t they? I feel like … I hate to flatter myself here, but is it just possible that these guys have been reading Bloomberg View?
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U.S. rejects Canada’s claim that Volcker rule violates NAFTA
BY JONATHAN SPICER, Reuters
The White House has dismissed the Canadian government’s claim that a ban on some proprietary trading on Wall Street violates a free-trade agreement, saying it has the legal right to protect its financial system.
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Regulatory
CFTC Speeches and Testimony
CFTC
On Thursday, CFTC Chairman Tim Massad spoke before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Also, the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee met to discuss central counterparty (CCP) risk management, and the CFTC’s cross-border application of its margin rule for uncleared swaps. Visit the CFTC Press Room for more.
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***DA: Also see the MarketsReformWiki page on cross-border activities. We have also added a few new white papers and other research on CCP risk, including FIA Global’s most recent position paper
US regulator attacks CFTC position limit rules
Futures & Options World
Chris Giancarlo, commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has again attacked the agency’s proposed position limit rules, claiming they would damage end-user’s ability to hedge their risk. Speaking at the EnergyRisk Summit in Houston on Wednesday, Giancarlo said “end-users, particularly in the energy markets, were not the source of the financial crisis and new Dodd-Frank rules should not treat them like they were.”
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CFTC’s Massad to seek comment on swap-dealer threshold study, drawing Giancarlo fire
Neil Roland, MLex
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission will seek public comment on a derivatives-market study to help it decide whether to increase the number of banks subject to swap-dealer requirements, Chairman Timothy Massad said. The plan was immediately denounced as “a half measure” by Republican Commissioner Christopher Giancarlo in an interview with MLex.
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SEC Names Wesley R. Bricker as Deputy Chief Accountant
SEC.gov
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointment of Wesley R. Bricker as a Deputy Chief Accountant overseeing the accounting group in the agency’s Office of the Chief Accountant.
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Deputy Chief Accountant Dan Murdock to Leave SEC
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Daniel Murdock, a deputy chief accountant overseeing the accounting group in the agency’s Office of the Chief Accountant, is leaving at the end of May to return to the private sector. Mr. Murdock started at the SEC in October 2013.
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BIS moves to end confusion over conflicting FX codes of conduct
Euromoney
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has formed a new FX working group to settle the problem of conflicting codes of conduct for FX market practitioners, promising to draw the best from all six existing codes to create a single document that will be universally applicable.
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Certain Canadian securities regulators to adopt start-up crowdfunding exemptions
AMF Canada
The securities regulators of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (the ?participating jurisdictions?) today announced they have implemented, or expect to implement, registration and prospectus exemptions that will allow start-ups and early-stage companies to raise capital through crowdfunding in these jurisdictions, subject to certain conditions.
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Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) Rulemaking and National Market System (NMS) Plans
SEC
BOX: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change to Adjust the Preferred Market Maker Quoting Obligations (Release No. 34-74952; File No. SR-BOX-2015-19; May 13, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
CBOE: Order Granting Approval of a Proposed Rule Change Relating to Stock-Option Order Handling (Release No. 34-74960; File No. SR-CBOE-2015-029)
EDGA: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change Related to Fees for Use of EDGA Exchange, Inc. (Release No. 34-74948; File No. SR-EDGA-2015-18; May 13, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
EDGX: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change Related to Fees for Use of EDGX Exchange, Inc. (Release No. 34-74950; File No. SR-EDGX-2015-22; May 13, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
EDGX: Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change to Establish Rules Governing the Trading of Options on the EDGX Options Exchange (Release No. 34-74949; File No. SR-EDGX-2015-18; May 13, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
FINRA: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change Relating to the Reporting Requirements of FINRA Rule 4530(a)(1)(H) (Release No. 34-74953; File No. SR-FINRA-2015-011; May 13, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
ICEEU: Order Approving Proposed Rule Change Relating to Collateral and Haircut Policy (Release No. 34-74955; File No. SR-ICEEU-2015-007; May 13, 2015)
NYSE Arca: Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change Adopting New Equity Trading Rules Relating to Trading Sessions, Order Ranking and Display, and Order Execution to Reflect the Implementation of Pillar, the Exchanges New Trading Technology Platform (Release No. 34-74951; File No. SR-NYSEArca-2015-38; May 13, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
NYSE Arca: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change Amending the NYSE Arca Equities Schedule of Fees and Charges for Exchange Services to Reduce Fees for Routing Certain Retail Orders to Away Market Centers (Release No. 34-74947; File No. SR-NYSEArca-2015-39; May 13, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
NYSEMKT: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change Modifying the NYSE Amex Options Fee Schedule Related to Fees and Credits Associated with the Customer Best Execution Auction (Release No. 34-74956; File No. SR-NYSEMKT-2015-38; May 13, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
Phlx: Notice of Designation of Longer Period for Commission Action on Proposed Rule Change to Amend and Restate Certain Rules that Govern the NASDAQ PSX (Release No. 34-74954; File No. SR-Phlx-2015-29; May 13, 2015)
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Exchanges & Trading Facilities
First On-SEF MBS Swap Package Traded On The Tradeweb TW SEF
MarketWatch
Tradeweb Markets, the leading global provider of fixed income and derivatives marketplaces, announced the completion of the industry’s first packaged mortgage backed security (MBS) and U.S. Dollar swap transaction on a swap execution facility (SEF). Axonic Capital executed the trade on the Tradeweb TW SEF before the expiration of no-action relief by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) requires the mandatory swap leg of these types of packages to trade on SEFs or designated contract markets (DCM) after May 15, 2015. The trade was cleared at CME Group.
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Brazil’s BM&FBovespa posts Q1 net income of $93 mln
Reuters
Brazil’s BM&FBovespa SA posted first-quarter net income of 279.7 million Brazilian reais ($93.45 million), a 9.2 percent increase over the same period last year, according to a securities filing on Thursday.
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BM&F BOVESPA Announces Results For The First Quarter of 2015
Press Release
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CME Group Announces the Launch of Cocoa Options on CME Europe
PR Newswire
CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the launch of options on its Physically Delivered Cocoa futures contracts. These options will be listed on CME Group’s European exchange, CME Europe, for first trade date on 29 June, 2015. Cocoa options are authorised and approved by the United Kingdom (UK) Financial Conduct Authority.
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Charles Li Direct
HKEx
LME Week Asia is right around the corner, so I want to turn my attention to our commodities business. I was very happy yesterday to report some positive first quarter results for HKEx, boosted by increased trading turnover and, more importantly, fruits of some initiatives we began years ago that are now starting to pay dividends. One of those initiatives was our purchase of the London Metal Exchange in 2012. Back then, people wondered if it was a good move, whether Hong Kong was a natural fit for a commodities exchange, or whether we paid too much.
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Hotspot cuts fees for European and Asian FX pairs
The Trade
BATS-owned FX trading platform Hotspot has cut its liquidity removal fees for customers across a range of currency pairs in Europe and Asia.
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SIFMA Market Close Recommendations for the US Memorial Day and UK Spring Bank Holidays
SiFMA
SIFMA made holiday recommendations for the U.S., the UK, and Japan in observance of the U.S. Memorial Day and the UK Spring Bank Holidays.
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures
U.S.-based stock funds attract $3.7 bln in latest week -Lipper
Reuters
Investors in U.S.-based funds poured $3.7 billion into stock funds in the week ended May 13, marking a recovery from the prior week’s $14.8 billion in outflows, data from Thomson Reuters’ Lipper service showed on Thursday.
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Regulators have misunderstood securities lending, argues BlackRock
The Trade News
BlackRock has defended industry securities lending practices in a recently published whitepaper, and have deemed arguments from regulators as ‘misunderstood’. In the paper, which was published on Wednesday, the world’s largest money market fund manager says regulators have formed policy discussions based on these ‘misunderstandings’ and have overstated the risks associated with securities lending.
jlne.ws/1PnrMTi
S&P 500 ends at record high as dollar loses ground
BY NOEL RANDEWICH, Reuters
U.S. stocks ended sharply stronger on Thursday and the S&P 500 closed at a record high as investors worried less about interest rates and a weaker dollar offered the possibility of stronger sales for U.S. multinationals.
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Hedge fund manager’s credibility questioned in Russian laundering case
By Christopher M Matthews, The Wall Street Journal
Hedge fund manager William Browder has long portrayed himself as a crusading financier seeking justice for the death of his associate Sergei Magnitsky, who was allegedly beaten to death in a Russian prison in 2009 after exposing a tax fraud involving government officials there.
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Banks & Brokers
Wealth Adviser: Brokers Fighting Their Firms Face a ‘Harrowing Process’
MoneyBeat – WSJ
Brokers who take a fight with their firms to arbitration can look forward to “a harrowing process,” as lawyer David Richan puts it. And if they persist all the way to a decision, they lose more often than not. “The odds are against you in just about any kind of claim,” writes Norb Vonnegut on Wealth Adviser at WSJ.com.
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Citigroup Closes Exclusive Credit Program Following Swiss Franc Losses; ‘Alternative Credit Program’ clients were fast-tracked through less intensive version of bank’s normal credit checks
By CHIARA ALBANESE and PETER RUDEGEAIR, WSJ
Citigroup Inc. has closed down a little-known program that allowed a small group of coveted clients to make high-stakes bets on currency markets without going through the bank’s normal procedures to manage risk, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Ex-Goldman Banker O’Neill Appointed to U.K. Government Role
By GILES TURNER, WSJ
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive Jim O’Neill has been appointed as commercial secretary to the U.K. Treasury, a role that includes advising on infrastructure projects, promoting trade, and managing the Royal Mint.
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Mitsubishi UFJ to Buy Back Shares, Mizuho Raises Dividend
by Takahiko Hyuga
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. plans to buy back more shares and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. is raising its dividend as Japan’s largest banks increase shareholder returns after profit exceeded their expectations.
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Clearing & Settlement
TriOptima eliminates 404 Trillion Japanese Yen (JPY) Notional Cleared Unlinked JPY Interest Rate Swaps in LCH.Clearnet SwapClear
MarketWatch
TriOptima announces today that 18 financial institutions reduced notional principal outstanding by 404 trillion JPY ($3.36 trillion USD) in the first triReduce compression cycle for unlinked, cleared JPY interest rate swaps in LCH.Clearnet’s SwapClear. This represents a 300% increase in notional principal eliminated, compared to previous JPY cycles in LCH.Clearnet SwapClear.
jlne.ws/1PntiVz
ForexClear earmarks 2016 for FX options clearing
FX Week
CCP time-stamps FX options-clearing plan, albeit for the third time since 2011, as concerns remain over currency delivery LCH.Clearnet-owned ForexClear is planning to launch an FX options-clearing service next year, subject to regulatory approval, FX Week has learned. The proposal is understood to involve FX settlement utility CLS, but as yet no working details have been revealed. A spokesperson for the central counterparty clearing house (CCP) confirmed the plans, but declined to expand.
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Efforts to harmonise real-time payments implementation are up against the clock
Banking Technology
The window of opportunity to harmonise international real-time payments implementations is rapidly closing as plans for domestic systems move ahead.
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Indexes & Products
The Mexican Stock Exchange and S&P Dow Jones Indices Announce Agreement for Index Licensing, Distribution, and Management of BMV Indices
The Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) and S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI), one of the world’s leading providers of financial market indices, today announced that they have signed an agreement to license all of the BMV indices including their flagship index, IPC (Indice de Precios y Cotizaciones) – the broadest indicator of the BMV’s overall performance. A signing ceremony was conducted at the Exchange earlier today.
jlne.ws/1KR4oXx
Sell in May? U.S. Large-Cap Equity Market Has Been Positive in May Through October 70% of the Last 20 Years, According to Russell U.S. Indexes.
MarketWatch
Russell Indexes analyzed the old investment adage “sell in May and go away” and found that, when viewed through the lens of the U.S. equity markets, the adage may not always apply.
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S&P Dow Jones may soon add mainland stocks to indices
CER
Major equity index provider S&P Dow Jones Indices appears closer to including mainland stocks in its offerings thanks to the market linkup between Shanghai and Hong Kong allowing some stocks at the former to be traded through the latter, The Wall Street Journal reported. David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at the firm, said “I don’t think it’ll be terribly long” until Shanghai’s A-shares are included. S&P Dow Jones will make the decision in September; MSCI recently said it will announce on June 9 whether it will add A-shares to its widely tracked emerging-markets index.
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A Rule of Thumb for VIX Watchers: What VIX Levels to Expect When Volatility Surges
S&P Dow Jones Indices Indexology Blog
Today, the Wall Street Journal ran an article titled “Volatility for Stocks Stays in Check.” But what caught my eye was the sub heading, “Expected wide stock-price swings fail to emerge, with no S&P 500 move of 2%, up or down, this year.” Here’s a question for you. If the market were to expect consistent 2% daily moves in the S&P 500 over the next 30 days, what approximate VIX level would we see?
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Technology
Immediate payments to shake up corporate banking
Euromoney
Real-time payments offer an array of liquidity and efficiency benefits for corporate treasurers, and could prove a boost to product and service delivery.
jlne.ws/1A4b3xG
PayPal to List on Nasdaq After eBay Split; Payments unit plans to trade under its old stock symbol PYPL
By GREG BENSINGER, WSJ
EBay Inc. payments unit PayPal said Thursday that it plans to trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market when the two companies split later this year.
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Big banks will need to explore FinTech space: Mohit Mehrotra
Livemint
A slew of new technology-driven start-ups are beginning to offer financial products dubbed “FinTech”, a segment that attracted $12 billion of investment in 2014, according to research firm CB Insights.
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Robo-Hiring: How An Automated Headhunter Is Finding Hidden Tech Talent For Wall Street
Forbes
Ed Donner spent a dozen years working as an software developer for JPMorgan Chase climbing up the ranks to become a managing director running some of the mega-bank’s biggest tech initiatives. He was responsible for complex electronic trading systems and risk calculations but says the hardest part of his job was hiring. “The number one challenge of last few years – and one that is a perennial frustration in the industry is how incredibly difficult it is to hire engineers,” explained Donner, who oversaw a team of 300 scattered across the globe.
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Enforcement
SEC Charges Father and Son in $1.1 Million Insider Trading Scheme
SEC.gov
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a father and son in New York with conducting a serial insider trading scheme involving tips of key nonpublic information in coded e-mail messages disguised as discussions about golf. The SEC alleges that Sean R. Stewart, currently a managing director at a prominent investment bank, routinely tipped his father Robert K. Stewart with confidential information about future mergers and acquisitions involving clients of two investment banks where he has worked during the past few years.
jlne.ws/1Pm9kdz
SEC Charges Nationwide Life Insurance Company With Pricing Violations
SEC.gov
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Nationwide Life Insurance Company with routinely violating pricing rules in its daily processing of purchase and redemption orders for variable insurance contracts and underlying mutual funds. Nationwide agreed to settle the charges and pay an $8 million penalty.
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CFTC Orders Double Eagle Enterprises, LLC and Eric Arlt to Pay More than $700,000 in Restitution and a Civil Monetary Penalty in Precious Metals Enforcement Action
CFTC
The order also permanently bars respondents from trading on CFTC-regulated markets.
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Environmental & Energy
Bank of America issues $600m green bond
By Will Nichols – BusinessGreen
Bank of America has issued a $600m green bond to fund renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, adding further impetus to the rapidly expanding market.
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China’s coal use declining
By Timothy Cama – The Hill
Consumption of coal is dropping in China, continuing a decline that started last year, an environmental group said.
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The financial case against Australia’s largest coal mine
By Jennifer Rankin – The Guardian
The case against building Australia’s largest coal mine has focused on the threats of runaway climate change and ruin of the Great Barrier Reef. But finances may yet prove the key.
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Pope’s Adviser Says U.S. Critics Wrong on Climate Change
By John Follain – Bloomberg News
Pope Francis’s closest adviser said U.S. critics are wrong to try to shut the pontiff out of the debate over climate change because the church has a role to play in shaping the ethical considerations of emissions.
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Asia-Pacific
Thai Bourse Joins UN Agencies Holding “SSE Regional Dialogue: South East Asia” First In Asia
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has joined hands with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) to organize the “Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Regional Dialogue: South East Asia,”the first of its kind in Asia, on May 18 in Bangkok.
jlne.ws/1KQVJ7u
Dalian Commodity Exchange Completes Collaborative Testing For Options Market Making
On April 30, after 28 trading days of heated transactions, trading after a fiery, the simulation testing of Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) for market making of the soybean meal options (the “Collaborative Testing” for short) was crowned with success.
jlne.ws/1KQVObj
Japan’s Financial Services Agency: The First Meeting Of The Working Group On Financial Group Of The Financial System Council
MondoVisione
The Working Group on Financial Group of the Financial System Council will hold its first meeting on May 19th, 2015 as follows.
jlne.ws/1bU0BwN
China puts cross-border investment funds sale plan on backburner
By Lisa Jucca and Michelle Chen, Reuters
China money managers worry about competition from global giants
Focus is on getting Hong Kong-Shenzhen trading link off ground
China total investable assets seen hitting 260 trl yuan by 2020
China’s plan to allow cross-border sales of investment funds between the mainland and Hong Kong appears to have lost momentum after opposition from domestic money managers who fear being overwhelmed by global competitors, industry players say.
jlne.ws/1HhwScA
Partial Cancellation of the Bonds due to Conversion
HKEx
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Frontier Markets
IOSCO And IFIE To Hold Global Investor Education Event 18-20 May In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Co-sponsored By The Securities Commission of Malaysia (SC), Major Event Will Feature Speakers From 17 Countries
MondoVisione
The International Forum for Investor Education (IFIE) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) will hold their seventh annual global investor education conference next week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
jlne.ws/1JMB18M
Qatar Stock Exchange Hosts Qatar ETF Symposium 2015
MondoVisione
Qatar Stock Exchange today hosted ‘Qatar ETF Symposium 2015′ in collaboration with iShares.. The pupose of the event was to generate awareness about ETFs in Qatar. It brought together global ETF experts, local asset managers, regulators and instituational investors to debate the potential of ETFs in Qatar as well as the wider GCC region.
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Corporates mull EM FX hedges
Euromoney A rising dollar, a falling euro, a vulnerable Chinese currency and critical elections are just some of the reasons why experts predict heightened emerging-market (EM) currency volatility in 2015.
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SEBI permits Madras Stock Exchange to exit business; MSE will be the 14th RSE to do so under the watchdog’s policy which came into effect in May 2012
TE Narasimhan, Business Standard
Market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has passed an order providing exit to the 78-year old Madras Stock Exchange Limited (MSE). The exchange will be 14th Stock Exchange to exit under SEBI’s exit policy, which came into effect in May 2012.
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Miscellaneous
Battle of the Quants 2015: Wall Street vs Silicon Valley
The Reformed Broker
Posting will be light today as I’m en route to take part in the 2015 Battle of the Quants conference at Carnegie Hall in New York City. I’m moderating a panel discussion about pretty fascinating topic – whether or not Wall Street and Silicon Valley will end up as rivals or partners as they infringe upon each others’ traditional turf.
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READ MORE: John Lothian Newsletter: Intercontinental Exchange Threatens to List New Cotton Contract Outside U.S.; US ‘superior’ to Europe on futures margin; CFTC’s Massad: agency directed CME to beef up “spoofing” enforcement.