April 20, 2018 | | | | Spencer Doar Editor John Lothian News | |
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| | Lead Stories | | Now NASDAQ gets in a tangle Jamie Powell - Financial Times Last month we published a story on Longfin, a Nasdaq listed trade-finance company with a tenuous link to blockchain technology and hence an excessively high market capitalisation. To recap, FTSE Russell decided to add Longfin to its Russell 2000 and 3000 small-cap indexes. Index funds then bought shares for their various products. There was one problem though. /goo.gl/7p4WD7 ****SD: "Tomorrow, 26,951 of Longfin put options will expire, representing 2,695,100 shares as each options contract is for 100 shares. In other words, the rights to sell account for 237 per cent of the 1.1m free-float as calculated by FTSE Russell." Other commentary from Bloomberg on the subject here. Lots of Things Can Look Like Manipulation; But someone can find out for sure. Matt Levine - Bloomberg There's a classic form of market manipulation where you own a derivative on, say, gold, and it pays out 1,000 times the price of gold at a particular time, and you go into the market and buy 100 ounces of gold at that particular time to push the price up, and if you overpay for the gold by $5 and it pushes the price up by $5, then you lose $500 on your gold and make $5,000 on your derivative, and so it is worth it, but it is generally considered to be cheating, when you put it like this. /goo.gl/dWR8od ****SD: Bloomberg reposted the VIX portion of Levine's Money Stuff column from yesterday. I can see why, as it's a good grain of salt with all the rigging talk floating around right now. With World's Biggest FX Trade Shackled, Investors Get Creative Katherine Greifeld - Bloomberg Euro-dollar exchange rate locked in 4-cent range since January; Traders forced to look further afield for ways to make money The world's most widely traded currency pair is stuck in its deepest rut since 2014. With few signs it's poised shake the malaise anytime soon, traders are being forced to get creative. /bloom.bg/2F0WgqB Next bubble to pop? Watch out for 'most crowded trade' Ritvik Carvalho - Reuters It's long been a financial market truism that if everyone already owns a particular stock, bond or security, there's no one left to buy and the only way for the price to go is down. That's easy to assert, less easy to measure. But a long-running and widely followed monthly survey of global investors by Bank of America Merrill Lynch has recently gained a reputation for accurately spotting where the herd is nearing a cliff edge. /reut.rs/2K0dUyx Commentary: Scapegoats, straw men and risk parity Jim Smigiel - Pensions and Investments Volatility made an unwelcome but expected February return to the capital markets. The CBOE Volatility index's largest close-to-close point increase on Feb. 5 abruptly ended a period of unparalleled tranquility, marked by the index's all-time low just months prior. /goo.gl/BWkXJv David Jane: Embrace the return of volatility Professional Adviser The return of volatility is actually a healthy sign, argues David Jane, as ultra-low levels increased market risk and indeed, if you look past the near-term noise, the global economic outlook remains strong /goo.gl/cYnxZJ Study: People Take More Risks at Lofty Building Heights Teresa Mathew - CityLab If you're in a penthouse, stay away from the ponies: Researchers have found that people are more likely to take financial risks at higher elevations inside a building. bit.ly/2vuaLUd ****SD: Our office is on the 16th floor...
| | | Exchanges and Clearing | | LedgerX's Bitcoin Derivatives Trading Volume Is Up 7X Since Launch Nikhilesh De - Coindesk Bitcoin trading platform LedgerX has seen a sevenfold increase in volume in the six months following its launch of cryptocurrency derivatives. bit.ly/2vy0UNa NSE, BSE plan commodity derivatives platforms Reena Zachariah - Economic Times India's leading stock exchanges National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange plan to enter the commodity derivatives market. bit.ly/2F2AliQ New York's 'Fearless Girl' to stare down the Stock Exchange Peter Szekely - Reuters The bronze statue of a little girl that became a tourism phenomenon by staring down Wall Street's massive "Charging Bull" sculpture is to be moved to a nearby spot where its stern gaze will be on the male-dominated New York Stock Exchange, city officials said on Thursday. /reut.rs/2F3uLMY SGX reports 3Q FY2018 net profit of S$100 million SGX ...Derivatives revenue rose 20% to S$90.5 million (S$75.2 million), contributing to 41% (37%) of total revenue. bit.ly/2vxZTVm
| | | Regulation & Enforcement | | U.K. Urges Fix for Brexit Threat to $137 Trillion of Derivatives Silla Brush - Bloomberg The U.K.'s top financial regulators called for lawmakers on both sides of the Channel to defuse the threat posed by Brexit to 96 trillion pounds ($137 trillion) worth of derivatives contracts. /goo.gl/vnPgWa
| | | Technology | | BT Radianz Cloud adds Vela's market data feed Hayley McDowell - The Trade BT Radianz Cloud has connected to a market data feed designed and operated by trading technology provider Vela. bit.ly/2vvzS9l
| | | Strategy | | Option strategies in ETFs act as a buffer during volatile markets ETF Strategy It is to no surprise that the market would face a slight correction in the early months of 2018. The downturns experienced in February increased investor concerns and fuelled a wide range of speculations on what's to come for the remainder of 2018. /goo.gl/NdHR84 How to Play a Renewed Bout of Tech Volatility Gunjan Banerji - Barron's Stock market volatility is sliding once again, but investors should watch out for explosive moves in technology shares. Equity swings have started to recede from recent highs as strong corporate earnings buoyed share prices. A measure of stock market turbulence, the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, which uses options prices to forecast moves over the next month, fell for six straight days, hitting its lowest level since early March on Tuesday. bit.ly/2JXhfhE
| | | Miscellaneous | | Aluminum Stash Visible From Space Turned to Gold for Trader Jack Farchy, Andy Hoffman and Mark Burton - Bloomberg Castleton is said to start selling stockpiled metal in U.S.; Trader benefiting from premium surge on tariffs and sanctions Two years ago, a commodity trading house started stockpiling thousands of tons of aluminum near a bend in the Mississippi River outside New Orleans. /goo.gl/7JJRCo Sanctions fever grips nickel as market rethinks Russia risk Andy Home - Reuters Sanctions fever has spread to nickel. With Russian aluminium producer Rusal imploding in the wake of U.S. sanctions against its oligarch owner Oleg Deripaska, attention is now turning to the status of another Russian industrial powerhouse, Norilsk Nickel. /reut.rs/2F3Iqn7 Trump interventions on Fed policy risk unsettling markets Sam Fleming - Financial Times The Trump administration is proving more willing to comment on Federal Reserve rate moves after saying little about central bank policy in its first year, in a development that risks unsettling financial markets. /on.ft.com/2F4wv8O
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