 | | | | | | | | February 11, 2025 | | | |  | Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
John Lothian News | |
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| | | | Observations & Insight | | | I think Matthew Tuttle played a little too much of the "Space Invaders" video game during college. Tuttle Capital has filed for the Tuttle Capital UFO Disclosure AI Powered ETF (ticker: UFOD), aiming to invest in companies potentially involved in reverse-engineering alien technology based on government UFO disclosures, the Financial Times reported. The fund, one of eight newly registered ETFs, will allocate at least 80% of its assets to aerospace and defense firms rumored to work with classified technology. It may also short companies at risk of obsolescence due to potential "alien-level" advancements. CEO Matthew Tuttle sees UFO technology as a game-changer but acknowledges the speculative nature of the investment, stating that the fund's launch depends on sufficient government disclosures. The firm's other ETFs focus on AI-driven investment strategies across various sectors. ~JJL
| | | | | | Lead Stories | | | Equity Vol Markets Shrug Off Tariff Threat
Mandy Xu - Cboe
While Canada and Mexico tariffs were delayed last week, China tariffs went into effect - though market reaction has been benign so far. Chinese equities rallied, with most of the flow in FXI still focused on upside calls (skew remains inverted across all tenors). Even SPX 1M implied vol - though it jumped initially on the tariff headlines - retraced quickly, ending the week unch'd at 13.2% and trading nearly 1 vol pt below realized. The equity vol markets are still pricing tariffs as a negotiating tactic, rather than an intended policy.
/jlne.ws/41a8CtJ
Corporates pressed on FX hedges as dollar surge bites; CFOs increasingly facing tough questions about impact of exchange rates on foreign revenues
Cole Lipsky - Risk.net
Foreign exchange losses have begun to mount for some of the largest global corporates, with the likes of Amazon, Apple and Nike reporting revenues negatively affected by continued US dollar strength in the fourth quarter. Since September, the dollar has risen by as much as 7% against many G10 and emerging market currencies, reducing the demand for exports and the value of foreign returns.
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Multi-Manager Hedge Funds Pose Stability Risk, Says BOE's Bailey
Greg Ritchie - Bloomberg
The rise of multi-manager hedge funds poses a threat to financial stability, according to Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey. Bailey said there are signs of correlated activity, which combined with often ruthless risk-management policies could see these funds rush to the exits during market shocks. Multi-manager funds, also known as multistrats or pod shops, have taken the lion's share of investment flows in hedge funds in recent years, with clients attracted by the promise of steady and diversified returns from traders organized into distinct strategies, or pods.
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Gold Hits Record in Volatile Session as Trump Fans Haven Demand; Bullion surged before paring back during Asian trading hours; US president warns import tariffs on metals could be increased
Sybilla Gross - Bloomberg
Gold steadied after swinging wildly during Asian trading hours, as fears of a global trade war pushes the precious metal to record highs.
Bullion surged to a fresh peak above $2,942 an ounce, before paring back. On Monday bullion rose above $2,900 for the first time ever, after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on US steel and aluminum imports, adding to uncertainty in global markets. He also warned the tariffs "may go higher."
/jlne.ws/3QiuVXK
| | | | | | Exchanges | | | Has meme-stock kid Robinhood finally come of age?; Online brokerage set to report blowout quarter as crypto trading has bolstered revenues
Jennifer Hughes - Financial Times
When Robinhood reports full-year earnings on Wednesday, it will mark a coming of age for the engine of 2021's fleeting meme stock mania.
Analysts anticipate fourth-quarter profits of more than double any previous quarter off the back of a blowout period for rivals. The online broker is expected to report its first-ever annual profit, more than three years after it first went public.
/jlne.ws/4aTntvW
Robinhood Rolls Out Options Trading in UK With ISAs to Come Soon
Aisha S Gani - Bloomberg
Robinhood Markets Inc. is launching US equity options trading for UK customers on Tuesday, as the investment firm looks to expand into tax-free accounts in Britain soon. The Menlo Park, California-headquartered firm said it has approval from UK regulators to offer options to retail investors. It comes months after Robinhood rolled out margin trading to British traders. Jordan Sinclair, president of Robinhood UK, said in an interview with Bloomberg News that customers had been asking for options since the company launched in the UK last year. He said the type of contract that customers can take out "represents an underlying NVIDIA stock or Tesla stock, or S&P 500 for an index option. So that piece is very well regulated," he added.
/jlne.ws/40SaS7t
CME Group Announces First Trades of Physically-Delivered Ethanol Futures & Options
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced its new physically-delivered Ethanol futures and options are now available for trading. A total of five futures contracts traded on February 7, 2025.
/jlne.ws/40KFK9S
CME Group's Expanded Suite of Short-Term Agricultural Options Now Available for Trading
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that its expanded suite of Weekly agricultural options on grains and oilseed futures, which now include an expiry for every day of the trading week, are available for trading.
/jlne.ws/3CKGmo9
BMLL adds ASX 24 and JSE to derivatives coverage; Specifically, level three order book data for ASX 24's XSFE and JSE's XSAF and ZFXM are now available in the BMLL Data Lab.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) are the latest derivatives venues to be included in BMLL's coverage. Over the last two years, BMLL has added more than 40 equities and futuresâEUR¯datasets globally, covering 98% of the MSCI All Country World Index as of October 2024, and has also added more than 50 new trading venues globally over the last 18 months, as well as OPRA options data.
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| | | | | | Regulation & Enforcement | | | Man Behind Fake SEC Bitcoin ETF Post Pleads Guilty; Eric Council Jr., a 25-year-old from Alabama, was arrested in October for his role in the hack of the SEC's X account
Mengqi Sun - The Wall Street Journal
An Alabama man has pleaded guilty to hacking into the Securities and Exchange Commission's official X account last year to manipulate bitcoin prices. Eric Council Jr., a 25-year-old from Athens, Ala., on Monday pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to one count of conspiring to commit identity theft and access device fraud, according to the Justice Department. Council will be sentenced on May 16 and faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to three years of supervised release.
/jlne.ws/4hO0owO
HSBC Acquitted on Charges of Violating Korea Short Selling Rules; Court finds no evidence of rule violation, Yonhap says; Bank argued Korean prosecutors' approach was 'arbitrary'
Sangmi Cha and Shinhye Kang - Bloomberg
HSBC Holdings Plc was acquitted by a South Korean court of charges that the bank engaged in illegal short-selling, a blow to the government's efforts to rein in abuses in the stock trading practice. In its ruling Tuesday, the Seoul Southern District Court said there was no evidence that HSBC employees knew of the rule violation before carrying out the trades in question, according to Yonhap.
/jlne.ws/4gAx8J8
| | | | | | Strategy | | | Tail risk hedging: Preparing for the crash
Nick Dunbar - Global Trading
Global Trading looks at best practice in tail risk hedging for buy-side desks, including strategies, resourcing and dealer relationships.
Markets are close to record highs, and bullishness among fund managers reached extreme levels in December, according to BofA's global survey. But some traders at buy-side firms are busy scouring the markets for tail hedges, ready to protect their portfolios against a market meltdown.
/jlne.ws/40XIZer
Gold's record highs are more than just Trump froth
Clyde Russell - Reuters
Gold's surge to a fresh record high is being fuelled by fears of an escalating global trade war instigated by U.S. President Donald Trump.
But behind the froth created by the mercurial U.S. leader, there are structural shifts that are creating a bullish backdrop for the precious metal.
/jlne.ws/42SxMyq
S&P 500 Continues Churn as Energy Rally Pulls Up Treasury Yields
Christopher Vecchio - tastylive
The imposition of new tariffs is taking some of the shine off U.S. equity markets today, although testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Capitol Hill is helping to soothe concerns otherwise. Treasury yields are pushing higher amid another rally in energy prices; market measures of inflation expectations have reached their highest level since early 2023. Elsewhere, Magnificent Seven stocks continue to lag the broader market, with Microsoft (MSFT) and Tesla (TSLA) weighing down gains.
/jlne.ws/4gw4rwM
| | | | | | Education | | | VIX Expansion Separating Reality from Fear
tastylive (Video)
It's not always easy to take the measure of a market, whether you've been trading for a day or a decade. On this segment we look under the hood-options probabilities, volatility, trading strategies, futures, you name it-so your trading mechanics are built to manage more winners.
/jlne.ws/4hz63Hn
| | | | | | Miscellaneous | | | 'No Limit' Hedge Fund Fees Eat Up Most Client Gains
Bloomberg (Video)
Private-jet flights, tuition and even snacks are among more than 140 expenses big multistrategy hedge funds pass through to investors, a Bloomberg analysis of regulatory filings shows.
/jlne.ws/3WWq7eE
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