Options Market is 'Fantastic Spot' for Buy Side
MarketsMedia
Strong volumes, a stress-tested market structure, and attractive volatility have created near-ideal conditions for institutional investment managers to buy and sell options.
That was a key takeaway of the Navigating Market Trends: Buyside Perspectives in Options Trading panel, which took place May 8 at the Options Industry Conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
In essence, institutional firms who haven't used options in the past are increasingly entering the space as more liquidity suggests larger trades can be executed efficiently.
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Volatility Gauge Sinks as US-China Tariff Truce Spurs Stocks Higher
Bernard Goyder - Bloomberg
The volatility that followed in the wake of President Donald Trump's April trade offensive has swung in the other direction after a US-China tariff truce.
The Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, dropped nearly 3 points to its lowest intraday level in 45 days on Monday, as the two nations agreed to temporarily drop tariffs on each others products. The gauge tumbled below its 30-year average of 20 twenty points ahead of the US opening bell, to 19.3 points.
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The Market's Fear Gauge Is Flashing Green as Nasdaq Nears New Bull Market
Connor Smith - Barron's
The stock market's fear gauge crossed a key level on Monday as volatility continued to march lower in the wake of easing trade tensions.
The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, was down 2.35 points to 19.55. Any reading below 20 is considered a signal of relative calm in markets. The VIX spiked north of 60 in April as investors panicked in response to President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" announcement of steep global tariffs.
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Hedge funds burned as Hong Kong dollar bets implode; Carry trades and call spreads unwound after Trump tariffs pushed spot to edge of currency peg
Lukas Becker, Joe Parsons and Chris Davis - Risk.net
Global trade tensions have turned the normally benign Hong Kong dollar into a treacherous currency to trade, with wild spot moves forcing hedge funds to unwind leveraged positions that were widely seen as relatively safe bets. "There were a lot of carry-type positions and people playing the range in that currency [HKD] that I think have been forced to reduce as a function of just general risk management," says the head of FX at a global bank. The Hong Kong dollar has been pegged to the US dollar
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Tariff-fuelled tumult could dent appeal of US assets, watchdog warns; Market swings caused by Trump's levies may be 'tipping point' for foreign investors, Congressional Budget Office chief says
Claire Jones - Financial Times
The Wall Street ructions sparked by President Donald Trump's trade war could be a "tipping point" for foreign investors' willingness to hold US assets, the head of Congress's fiscal watchdog has warned. "Even as we move away from the volatility of April, the memory of it will still remain," Phillip Swagel, director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the Financial Times. "Something we're trying to figure out is will there be a lasting hesitation among global investors as they look at the US."
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The Recession Chatter Is Getting Louder. Watch These Metrics; We've built a dashboard to help you figure out if we're headed for a downturn.
Reade Pickert and Mark Glassman - Bloomberg
The US economy entered 2025 on solid footing, but President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs have thrown a wrench into the outlook. Many economists forecast the new levies will slow growth and boost inflation-and possibly push up unemployment too. We've assembled a diverse set of indicators to help you assess where things are headed.
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CME Group Inc. Announces Preliminary Results from its 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders
CME Group
CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) today announced the preliminary shareholder voting results from its 2025 annual meeting.
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Volume and message traffic spike in wake of tariff announcement
MEMX
The "Liberation Day" tariff announcement on April 2nd triggered significant trading activity in the days that followed. Looking at the 10 highest volume days on MEMX since the beginning of 2023, six of them occurred in April 2025. The most active day was April 9th, when MEMX traded 749 million shares and handled 1.685 billion messages (orders, cancels, replaces, and trades).
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After tariff rout, hedge funds revive euro rate steepeners; Dutch pension overhaul drives bets on euro rates curve steepening
Rebekah Tunstead - Risk.net
Hedge funds are stepping back into euro rates steepener trades after taking profits during April's tariff-driven turbulence, betting that the gap between short- and long-term swap rates will continue to widen in response to Dutch pension fund reforms and expected central bank rate cuts. The trades, which see investors receive fixed on five- or 10-year euro interest rate swaps and pay fixed on 30-year instruments, paid off when markets whipsawed in response to US president Donald Trump's
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STOXX Europe TM Defense Futures: The strategic instrument for the defense sector
Eurex
Over the past three years, defense has returned to the forefront of political and public discussion in Europe. Geopolitical events continue to drive an increase in defense spending. Emerging challengesâEUR¯and the need for modernization contribute to a strong demand for defense products and services. Defense spending is expected to remain significant, with European countries investing in national security and military capabilities to meet the challenges. Also, the European Commission has taken steps to promote Europe's defense industrial capacity and resilience through initiatives such as the European Defense Fund.
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How student finance clubs seized control of the path to Wall Street; College finance clubs have become a gateway to Wall Street careers, and the process for joining can be as cutthroat as the industry itself.
Emmalyse Brownstein - Business Insider
In his first week as a freshman at Columbia University, Jordan Cancel, a Floridian who was then 18, saw just how competitive a career path to finance would be. Outside the iconic Butler Library, known for its Neoclassical columns, mobs of students were clamoring to get to informational booths set up by the college's finance and business clubs. "There were lines and lines of kids queued up at these club booths," Cancel, now 20, recalled in an interview with Business Insider. The students, he said, were all vying to converse with the clubs' leaders and make a good impression. "I was just honestly really overwhelmed." Weeks later, heading to his first admissions interview with one of these clubs, the stakes felt palpable.
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