| April 04, 2022 | | | |  | Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
John Lothian News | |
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| | | | Observations & Insight | | | 
CFTC History Made with Four Women Commissioners; CME Group Launches Micro-Sized Options; Meme Stocks Surge in Trading ... Again
JohnLothianNews.com
"Alex Perry's Optionstopia" takes a look at this week's options news highlights: CFTC History Made with Four Women Commissioners; CME Group Launches Micro-Sized Options; Meme Stocks Surge in Trading
Euronext presents "Options Term of the Week". The difference between market and exercise price.
Watch the video »
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David Howson Looks Forward to His New Role and the Coming Year at Cboe
JohnLothianNews.com
David Howson will start a new role as president of Cboe on May 12, 2022, after joining the exchange in 2017. Howson started his exchange career in the City of London on the open outcry floor, and he says it is ironic that he will be relocating to Chicago, the home of the open outcry floor.
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| | | | | | Lead Stories | | | Twitter options trades ahead of Musk disclosure raise analysts' eyebrows
Saqib Iqbal Ahmed - Reuters
Some well-timed trades in the options on Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), in the days before Tesla Inc's (TSLA.O) top boss Elon Musk revealed a large stake in the social media company, are raising eyebrows among options analysts.
On Monday, Musk revealed a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the biggest shareholder in the company, and triggering a 26% rise in Twitter's shares to over $49.
/jlne.ws/3u5WTM5
Barclays ETN debacle seen as unlikely to 'end the gravy train'
Steve Johnson - Financial Times
The already tarnished reputation of exchange traded notes has taken another hit in recent days, but reports of the structure's imminent demise may prove wide of the mark.
The latest debacle saw Barclays abruptly suspend creation of new units of two of its most popular ETNs, VXX and OIL, which offer exposure to the Vix volatility gauge and crude oil prices.
/jlne.ws/35BFWzM
Short Sellers Bet Tether, Crypto's Central Bank, Is Vulnerable to a Run; Tether says it has conservative investments, while hedge funds question how much risk lies in the $82 billion investment portfolio that backs the currency
Peter Rudegeair - WSJ
Short sellers are betting against a cryptocurrency whose price shouldn't move. A few investment firms, including Fir Tree Partners and Viceroy Research LLC, have placed substantial bets in recent months that the price of tether will fall, according to people familiar with the matter. Tether is the most popular currency for trading bitcoin and is supposed to have a fixed value pegged to the U.S. dollar. Some hedge funds arranged short sales of tether with Genesis Global Trading Inc., one of the larger crypto brokerages for professional investors, said Matt Ballensweig, Genesis's co-head of trading and lending. About a dozen funds discussed doing the same with Genesis, but many didn't move forward, Mr. Ballensweig said.
/jlne.ws/3Je3vg4
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Warns of Unprecedented Risks for US Economy
Lina Saigol - Barron's
JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon on Monday warned of the unprecedented risks facing the U.S. economy as the war in Ukraine, persistent inflation and rising interest rates combine to slow the Covid-19 pandemic recovery.
"They present completely different circumstances than what we've experienced in the pastâand their confluence may dramatically increase the risks ahead," Dimon wrote in his closely-watched annual letter to shareholders,
/jlne.ws/3J7LuzQ
Funds scaled back on CBOT grain risk ahead of volatile USDA data
Karen Braun - Reuters
Speculators' bullish views toward Chicago-traded grains and oilseeds have recently hovered near all-time records, though the looming reports from the U.S. government sent some investors to the exits last week.
Those March 31 Department of Agriculture reports, including U.S. planted acres and stocks, are notoriously hard to predict and often cause large swings in futures prices. The plantings report lived up to that hype this year, though the impact on corn was opposite that on soybeans.
/jlne.ws/3j6WkeK
Hedge funds struggle with triple uncertainties on oil
John Kemp - Reuters
Investors made few changes to petroleum positions last week as prices remained poised between upside risks from the disruption of Russian exports and downside risks from recession and China's coronavirus outbreaks.
Hedge funds and other money managers sold the equivalent of 15 million barrels in the six most important petroleum futures and options contracts in the week to March 29, according to position records.
/jlne.ws/3DG1oAv
Stocks' mysterious strength should not stop investors acting
Mohamed El-Erian - Financial Times
The way US stocks have navigated the current phase of macroeconomic and interest rate volatility reminds me of the recurrent "mystery" line in Shakespeare in Love, one of my all-time favourite films.
Explaining his business to a financial backer, the head of a theatre group notes that "the natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster". When asked, "so, what do we do?" he responds: "Nothing. Strangely enough. It all turns out well." And when pressed how, he says "I don't know, it's a mystery."
/jlne.ws/37j2q9r
| | | | | | Exchanges | | | OCC Total Volume for March 2022 Second Highest Month on Record, Up 4.4% Year-Over-Year
OCC via Businesswire
OCC, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, announced today that year-to-date average daily volume through March 2022 was 42.7 million contracts, up 1.2 percent compared to year-to-date average daily volume through March 2021. Total volume was 943.7 million contracts, up 4.4 percent compared to March 2021.
/bit.ly/3u8DHO6
CME Group Reports Q1 and March 2022 Market Statistics
CME Group
-Q1 Overall ADV increased 19% and March ADV was up 12% year-over-year
-Record Q1 Equity Index futures and options ADV
-Record Q1 SOFR futures and options ADV and OI
/bit.ly/3j59byi
| | | | | | Regulation & Enforcement | | | U.K. regulators to probe LME's nickel fiasco
Penny Sukhraj - MarketWatch
The UK's regulators said they would probe the London Metal Exchange's 8 March suspension of nickel trading, a decision the exchange took after a disorderly market arose, which raised questions about the LME's transparency.
A squeeze on one fund's massive short of nickel triggered the price to more than double on 8 March. The LME then halted trading and pushed back the clock a day, wiping trades that would have been lucrative for some.
/jlne.ws/3u4YaDl
How the SEC's Swaps Proposal Could Choke Off Shareholder Activism
Alex Edmans - WSJ
A push by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for more transparency around security-based swap positions might seem, on its face, to be a no-brainer.
After all, the misuse of one type of swap, credit-default swaps, was a major contributor to the global financial crisis of 2007-08. And a second type, total return swaps, contributed to the multibillion-dollar collapse of Archegos Capital Management last year.
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| | | | | | Events | | | OIC 2022 Educational Series: Covered Calls, Spreads and Hedging
The Options Industry Council (OIC)
In the second quarter of 2022, The Options Industry Council (OIC)SM will present three new, live educational webinars, each focused on a specific options investing topic. April's presentation will be Covered Calls and the "Poor Man's Covered Call", followed by Spread Trading With Options in May and concluding with Hedging With Options in June.
OIC webinars will be led by instructors with real-world experience in the options industry, each of whom will share their deep options knowledge. OIC webinars, which are completely free to join, are designed to help investors understand the benefits along with the potential risks of utilizing options in a portfolio.
/jlne.ws/37kNg3y
| | | | | | Miscellaneous | | | Great Resignation Isn't Slowing and May Persist, Randstad Says; Survey finds third of workers put personal lives before jobs; Employees attach more consequences to their unhappiness: CEO
Cagan Koc - Bloomberg
The Great Resignation shows no sign of easing and a dwindling supply of workers may be here to stay, according to Randstad NV, a global provider of employment services. Fewer people in the job market, underpinned by a long-term demographic trend, is allowing talented workers to have more options and they're going where their needs are met, said Sander van 't Noordende, who took over as chief executive officer of the Dutch company on Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/3j0Ah9J
The Top-Performing Stock-Fund Managers Over a Turbulent Year; The No. 1 manager beat the runner-up by nearly 8 percentage points. Here's how.
Suzanne McGee - WSJ
Global pandemic. Brexit. Turmoil in U.S. politics. Inflation rates unparalleled since the 1980s. And now a war on Ukraine by Russiaâa nuclear power. It's little wonder that market strategists are scrambling to explain to their clients how "black swan" events (unforeseen catastrophes) and geopolitics have affected stock marketsâand how the future is as unpredictable as ever. "Buckle in," advises BNY Mellon in one such missive, warning investors to stay prepared for "significant volatility."
/jlne.ws/3LF3ljj
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