| July 27, 2023 | | | |  | Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
John Lothian News | |
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| | | | Observations & Insight | | | 
Thom Lant's Trip To Ukraine and Back With Humanitarian Aid Is Just a Beginning
JohnLothianNews.com
Independent communication consultant Thom Lant decided early on in the Ukraine war that he needed to help and that help involved buying a truck and driving it himself to Ukraine. After convincing loved ones over time, he embarked on fundraising and then on a perilous trip to deliver not only a truck, but one full of humanitarian aid.
Watch the video »
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KOR Financial Founder/CEO Jonathan Thursby on filling a need in the regulatory reporting sphere
JohnLothianNews.com
Jonathan Thursby, the founder and CEO of KOR Financial, spoke with JLN Correspondent Julie Ros at the IDX 2023 Conference in June about what led him to start his own business and how KOR is challenging the status quo.
Watch the video »
| | | | | | Lead Stories | | | Keurig Dr Pepper Sees $1 Million in Bullish Call Options Ahead of Earnings
Carly Wanna - Bloomberg
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. attracted more than $1 million in bullish bets as traders flocked to call options ahead of the beverage behemoth's earnings report.
Investors snapped up more than 26,000 contracts of $34 call options for the drink maker, in what appears to be a wager that the stock will tick above that level by the option's expiry of Sept. 15, from the current $32.68. While there weren't clear indications of share trades done at the same time as the calls, options are often part of broader strategies, not necessarily bets on the directional move of a given stock.
/jlne.ws/44ULnD4
Hedge funds turn to exotics for EM carry trades
Joe Parsons - Risk.net (Subscription)
Dealers are seeing a resurgence in exotic foreign exchange options trading as hedge funds turn to cheaper structures to profit from emerging market carry trades.
FX carry trades have been among the most popular trades for market participants this year, with currencies such as the Brazilian real, Colombian peso, Hungarian forint, Mexican peso and Indonesian rupiah delivering significant returns.
/jlne.ws/3rSQuVV
GDP Data Set to Reinforce Fed View the US Will Avoid Recession
Matthew Boesler - Bloomberg
The Federal Reserve's own economists have joined the group of private-sector forecasters who are rethinking their calls for a recession this year, or becoming more confident the US will skirt a downturn altogether.
Their growing faith in the economy is set to be strengthened on Thursday, when government data will probably show gross domestic product expanded at a 1.8% annualized pace in the April-to-June period. That would be down only slightly from 2% in the previous quarter, and roughly in line with the Fed's assessment of a sustainable long-term rate.
/jlne.ws/3Oa6E4T
Winklevoss Twins Launch Daily Crypto Derivatives Trading Competitions Overseas
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
The billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss' Gemini is turning to a long-time crypto industry tactic to bolster usage on its derivatives exchange â daily competitions for prizes and the bragging rights that come with being listed as the most successful traders.
The Gemini Foundation will be hosting its first-ever "leader board" competition on the exchange in August. Participants will have to fund accounts with at least $250 of the Gemini Dollar stablecoin, and to maintain a similar balance during the month-long contest.
/jlne.ws/475b8T4
3 Ways the Federal Reserve Messed up Inflation, Interest Rates, Economy
Matthew Fox - Business Insider
The Federal Reserve has done a lousy job navigating the surge in inflation over the past two years, according to UBS Global Wealth Management's chief economist, Paul Donovan.
In a note to clients on Wednesday, Donovan said that the Fed has made three big mistakes since inflation broke out and it began hiking interest rates, and those mistakes will have an impact on the broader economy.
/jlne.ws/3rM0Dnp
Brookfield Shuts Down Its Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund BHS Advisors
Alex Morrell - Business Insider
Canadian asset management behemoth Brookfield Corporation is shutting down its multi-strategy hedge fund Brookfield Hedge Solutions Advisors.
BHS Advisors, a multi-strategy hedge fund platform within the $825 billion conglomerate, is winding down after four years, according to people familiar with the matter. It had 66 employees â including 38 investment professionals â and managed $1.3 billion in assets, according to a March securities filing.
/jlne.ws/3DyarUQ
'Last hike of the cycle': economists predict Federal Reserve is done with interest rate rises
Colby Smith - Financial Times
Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell had a message for global markets on Wednesday after the US central bank raised interest rates again: no one should doubt its resolve to snuff out stubbornly-high inflation in the world's biggest economy.
That could mean more rate rises this year, Powell insisted in the press conference after the Fed's announcement. It was a stern warning, but economists and investors were largely unmoved.
/jlne.ws/3Owus4b
Fed no longer foresees a U.S. recession â and other things we learned from Powell's press conference
Greg Robb - MarketWatch
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate to a range of 5.25% to 5.5%, the highest level in 22 years, in order to combat "elevated" inflation.
With financial markets and economists widely expecting that rate move, the focus was on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's one-hour session with reporters, which followed.
/jlne.ws/3ObI5o7
| | | | | | Exchanges | | | ICE's Global Commodity and Energy Markets Reach Record Open Interest
Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, today announced record open interest (OI) across its global commodity and energy futures and options markets. On July 25, 2023, ICE hit record OI of 55.4 million contracts across commodities futures and options, up 14% year-over-year (y/y), with record OI of 50.9 million in energy futures and options, also up 14% y/y. OI across ICE's commodity options portfolio continues to perform strongly, up 25% y/y at 20.6 million, with ADV up 27%, while energy options OI is up 26% y/y at 18.5 million, with ADV up 28% y/y. ICE offers the most liquid markets to trade energy. Across ICE's global oil markets, OI is up 17% y/y at 12.3 million, with OI in Brent futures and options up 14% y/y at 5 million.
/jlne.ws/454Mwbo
'Flash Boys' Exchange IEX Has Criticized Rebates. Now It's Adopting Them.
Alexander Osipovich - The Wall Street Journal
IEX, the upstart stock exchange made famous by Michael Lewis's book "Flash Boys," has adopted a controversial practice that it previously criticized as harmful to investors. The New York-based exchange will start paying rebates to brokerages and trading firms that publicly post new orders on its marketplace, a way to encourage them to quote prices for more stocks, according to a filing submitted Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. IEX had previously campaigned against rebates. Critics of the practice have said that they create a conflict of interest by encouraging brokers to route customers' orders to exchanges that pay the biggest rebate, rather than to the exchange that would give investors the best price.
/jlne.ws/3rMXsMk
****** Things change. You need to change with them, or you won't be around any more.~JJL
Exponential Exchange Closes $7.4m Seed Round To Fund Further Development Of Risk Mitigation Tools For The Automotive Ecosystem; MaC Venture Capital, Autotech Ventures, and Avanta Ventures invest in startup pioneering new solutions addressing market volatility-related financial exposure in auto
Exponential Exchange
Financial innovation platform Exponential Exchange today announced the successful close of an oversubscribed $7.4 million seed funding round led by MaC Venture Capital to continue building a suite of financial instruments designed to bring new risk-management solutions into the automotive ecosystem and other industries with underserved asset classes.
/jlne.ws/3OxuuJ9
***** Exponential Exchange revving up their engines.~JJL
Winklevoss Twins Gamify Overseas Derivatives Trading Platform to Boost Demand; The first competition will require balances of Gemini Dollars; Exchanges such as BitMex have used leader boards for years
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
The billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss' Gemini is turning to a long-time crypto industry tactic to bolster usage on its derivatives exchange - daily competitions for prizes and the bragging rights that come with being listed as the most successful traders. The Gemini Foundation will be hosting its first-ever "leader board" competition on the exchange in August. Participants will have to fund accounts with at least $250 of the Gemini Dollar stablecoin, and to maintain a similar balance during the month-long contest.
/jlne.ws/3Qa9YzD
| | | | | | Regulation & Enforcement | | | Tennessee couple allegedly defrauded over 100 investors of $6 million in 'Blessings of God Thru Crypto' scheme: 'No one is here to scam you'
Ben Weiss - Fortune
If there were just one rule to follow to protect yourself from scammers, it would be the following: When someone explicitly says a financial opportunity isn't a scam, there's a high likelihood that it, ahem, is. On Tuesday, that maxim held true as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency that regulates the derivatives market, alleged in a lawsuit that Michael and Amanda Griffis, of Clarksville, Tenn., scammed over 100 investors out of at least $6 million through a crypto trading scheme they called "Blessings Thru Crypto" or "Blessings of God Thru Crypto."
/jlne.ws/3DyQop2
| | | | | | Strategy | | | How investors can 'get paid to wait,' after Fed raises rates to highest level in 22 years
Joy Wiltermuth - MarketWatch
Investors should brace for more volatility in stocks in the coming months, said James McCann, deputy chief economist at abrdn, after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday bumped up rates to a 5.25%-5.5% range, the highest in 22 years.
"We are pretty cautious on equities," McCann told MarketWatch after the Fed raised rates by a quarter point, as expected, but indicated future rate hike could be possible in the coming months.
/jlne.ws/3QiYPwm
Microsoft 3x Volume
Cboe (Video)
In #Vol411, Scott Bauer @cboesib covers $SPX volatility, $VIX options trades, and equity #options volume in $TSLA, $GOOG, $MSFT & $NIO. #markets #earnings
/jlne.ws/3QcD5lJ
| | | | | | Education | | | Black-Scholes and the mysterious smile
World Finance
One of the oldest questions in finance is how to price options - those financial instruments which give you the right, but not the obligation, to purchase an asset in the future at a set price. For example, suppose that you think that the shares of some company, currently priced at $100, are set to go higher. Rather than purchase the shares at that price, a cheaper alternative is to buy a 'call' option which gives you the right to buy them at a certain price, known as the strike, in a year's time.
/jlne.ws/3Y9xlLA
| | | | | | Miscellaneous | | | This Female Billionaire Thinks the Secret to Women's Wealth Is Poker
Belinda Luscombe - Time
Jenny Just is a legit self-made billionaire. She won't say how many billions, but calls a 2022 estimate of one and a half of them "conservative." You haven't heard of her, because until now, she's had no reason to be out in public; with four kids and four companies, she likes to say, she has had plenty to keep her occupied. Plus, rich people often feel safer with a low profile. But during the pandemic, when her already substantial wealth blew up alongside the number of companies using a financial technology platform she and her husband created, she found a cause close enough to her heart to make her step into the limelight. Weirdly, it's poker. Specifically it's teaching 1 million women and girls how to play Texas Hold'em.
/jlne.ws/43Iuv1k
***** One thing I have learned is not be bet against Jenny Just.~JJL
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