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JLN Options
July 07, 2022  
 
Jeff Bergstrom
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Lead Stories
 
VIX Traders Are Piling Into Bets That Fresh Stock Pain Is Ahead
Lu Wang - Bloomberg
Volatility traders are putting their guard up just as US stocks bounce back, with options signaling the highest level of anxiety since right before the 2020 pandemic crash.
The call-put ratio on the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, jumped Wednesday to levels unseen for some two and a half years, driven by bets on fresh market turmoil.
/jlne.ws/3yOEl5D

How Amateurs Lost Billions on Options
Bloomberg (Audio)
During the day-trading craze that erupted amid the Covid-19 pandemic's lockdowns, market professionals repeatedly warned a new flock of Reddit-reading, Robinhood-using retail investors that equity options were risky, and that bold bets in that market could end badly. It turns out their caution was spot on.
/jlne.ws/3nIih6m

Bear Markets, Vol: Impact on Today's Retail Option Traders
Garrett DeSimone - MoneyShow
The recent bear market has led to sustained losses for these traders across a variety of asset classes, likely reducing wealth along with risk tolerance.
Smaller lot sizes tend to be more likely in retail option trading. OptionMetrics proxies for retail behavior by studying small lot trade sizes on options data within IvyDB Signed Volume.
We decided to examine this data to gain insights into retail option traders' resiliency given recent events.
/jlne.ws/3NP64rc

Cryptocurrency Woes Could Add Volatility to Short-Term Rates, Report Says
WSJ
The woes of the cryptocurrency sector may add volatility to short-term borrowing rates, warns Steven Kelly, of the Yale Program on Financial Stability, in a research note this week. At issue is what happens if more people move away from so-called stablecoins amid the broader market tumult, as these securities are tied to conventional assets like short-term Treasury debt and commercial paper, he said. Large movements out of stablecoins are "an underappreciated risk for the short-term interest rate complex" and should be on traders' radar, said Kelly.
/jlne.ws/3Io3TJZ

Fed Saw 'More Restrictive' Rates Possible If Inflation Persists
Jonnelle Marte - Bloomberg
Federal Reserve officials solidified their resolve in June to keep raising interest rates for longer to prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched, even if that slowed the US economy.
Policy makers increased interest rates by 75 basis points last month and backed hiking them at their next meeting in July by either 50 or 75 basis points, according to minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's June 14-15 meeting released Wednesday. They viewed maintaining the central bank's credibility to control inflation as crucial.
/jlne.ws/3uyuOgl

Every Stock Trade Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Husband Has Made Since 2021
Madison Hall - Business Insider
As members of Congress debate whether lawmakers and their spouses should play the stock market, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, a venture capitalist, continues to regularly buy and sell stocks and stock options.
Pelosi has access to confidential intelligence and the power to affect — with words or actions — the fortunes of companies in which her husband invests and trades.
/jlne.ws/3Az4WEQ

Options Insider Radio OIC 2022 Interviews: The Options Clearing Corporation
OCC (Audio)
On a recent episode of The Options Insider Radio, our CEO John Davidson sat down with Mark Longo at the 2022 Options Industry Conference to discuss options trends from the past year as well as OCC's technology transformation.
/jlne.ws/3RiwFj3

 
 
Exchanges
 
Cboe Global Markets Reports Trading Volume for June 2022
Cboe Global Markets
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), a leading provider of global market infrastructure and tradable products, today reported June monthly trading volume statistics across its global business lines and provided guidance for selected revenue per contract/net revenue capture metrics for the second quarter of 2022.
The data sheet "Cboe Global Markets Monthly Volume & RPC/Net Revenue Capture Report" contains an overview of certain June trading statistics and market share by business segment, volume in select index products, and RPC/net capture, which is reported on a one-month lag, across business lines.
/jlne.ws/3NQvmoT

Miami International Holdings Wins Patent Case Against Nasdaq; All Asserted Patents Invalidated And Patent Claims Permanently Dismissed with Prejudice
MIAX
Miami International Holdings Wins Patent Case Against Nasdaq; All Asserted Patents Invalidated And Patent Claims Permanently Dismissed with Prejudice
/jlne.ws/2K3gU18

June 2022 figures at Eurex
Eurex
Total traded derivatives contracts at Eurex grew by 26 percent in June, from 167.7 million to 210.9 million compared to the same month last year. Interest rate derivatives showed the strongest year-on-year growth, up 42 percent from 57.9 million traded contracts to 82.0 million, while index derivatives grew by 28 percent, from 77.9 million traded contracts to 99.3 million. Total contracts traded in equity derivatives fell by 8 percent to 29.2 million.
/jlne.ws/3OPESd6

Monthly Activity Report; As the leading institutional, wholesale and retail marketplace for fixed income, derivatives and ETF trading, we believe that market participants will better understand the real impact of e-trading with more centralized access to data on our market activity.
Tradeweb
Average daily volume (ADV) for the month was $1.24tn, an increase of 18.0 percent (%) year-over-year (YoY). For the second quarter of 2022, total trading volume was $72.6tn and ADV was a record $1.18tn, an increase of 20.4% YoY. Average daily trades for the month totaled 101,935. In June, Tradeweb reported record ADV in swaps/ swaptions = 1-year. For the second quarter of 2022, Tradeweb reported record ADV in swaps/swaptions = 1-year, fully electronic U.S. High Grade credit, municipal bonds and Repurchase Agreements.
/jlne.ws/2TwpBEI

New crypto options and futures exchange 'Thalex' closes Series A funding round
Press Release
Thalex, a trading platform offering stablecoin-settled crypto options and futures, announced it has closed its Series A funding round of EUR 7.5 million. Among the participants are Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Flow Traders, IMC, QCP and Wintermute. These strategic investors will support the company's ambition to enable on-exchange trading of crypto derivatives at scale by removing friction, ensuring platform reliability and partnering with liquidity providers and major exchanges.
/jlne.ws/3nLnhXP

 
 
Regulation & Enforcement
 
Brokers Get Unfair Profits From Lending Stock, Pension Funds Say
Bill Alpert - Barron's
Five of Wall Street's biggest brokers are a step closer to defending class-action claims that they conspired to wring unfair profits from the nearly $2 trillion dollar market for stock loans.
A successful class-action case could crimp profits at the prime brokerage units of defendants Goldman Sachs (ticker: GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), UBS (UBS), the J.P. Morgan unit of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and the Merrill Lynch unit of Bank of America (BAC).
/jlne.ws/3NKvQwA

JPMorgan's 'Big Hitters' of Gold Market Face Trial Over Spoofing
Eddie Spence and Tom Schoenberg - Bloomberg
Michael Nowak was once the most powerful person in the gold market.
The former JPMorgan Chase & Co. managing director ran the bank's precious metals business for more than a decade, making hundreds of millions of dollars in profit trading everything from silver to palladium. Now, he and two of his former colleagues face a federal jury in Chicago on criminal charges for thousands of so-called spoofing trades, which prosecutors say were used for years to generate illicit gains for JPMorgan and its top clients.
/jlne.ws/3NKAURL

Understanding Trading in the EU; ISDA Chief Executive Officer Scott O'Malia offers informal comments on important OTC derivatives issues in derivatiViews, reflecting ISDA's long-held commitment to making the market safer and more efficient.
ISDA
As the EU considers changes to its Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and regulation (MIFID II/MIFIR), new ISDA research on derivatives trading in the region shows some interesting trends. Importantly, it confirms the post-crisis commitment of the Group-of-20 nations to move standardized over-the-counter derivatives to electronic trading platforms or exchanges where appropriate has largely been achieved in the EU.
/jlne.ws/3bNzFDP

 
 
Technology
 
Moody's Analytics adds market risk capabilities to PFaroe Portfolio Management platform; Enhanced platform will help aid portfolio managers navigate increased volatility in the current trading environment.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Moody's Analytics has added market risk analytics to its PFaroe Portfolio Management (PM) Platform to help portfolio managers navigate current market volatility, The TRADE can reveal. PFaroe PM will now offer historical and Monte-Carlo risk analytics alongside its multi-asset class performance attribution capabilities.
/jlne.ws/3RjAhl6

 
 
Strategy
 
Opinion: These stock-market bears are relentless
Lawrence G. McMillan - MarketWatch
The S&P 500 index continues to exhibit the traits of a bear market, even ignoring the usual positive seasonality around the Fourth of July holiday. The accompanying graph shows that the index's downtrend lines - lower highs and lower lows - remain in effect, and that is all you need to determine that a bear market is in place.
/jlne.ws/3uwKzo6

Short Bitcoin ETFs Popular as Traders Capitalize on Crypto's Bear Market
David Canellis - Blockworks
Crushed cryptocurrency markets have spurred interest in stocks that allow bets on bitcoin's further collapse.
Trade volumes for inverse bitcoin ETFs are up 44% since algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) collapsed in early May, according to data compiled by Blockworks.
/jlne.ws/3OTchU9

 
 
Miscellaneous
 
UK fund managers lobby for approval of blockchain-traded funds
Chris Flood - Financial Times
Britain's asset management industry is pushing the government to establish a new class of fund employing blockchain technology, highlighting how financial firms are tapping the architecture that underlies the crypto market.
The Investment Association, the trade body representing the UK's asset management industry which oversees close to GBP10tn for clients worldwide, will call on Thursday for the government and City regulator to work "at pace" to approve blockchain-traded funds that will issue digital tokens to investors instead of traditional shares or fund units.
/jlne.ws/3nLLSvE
 
 
 
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John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals.
 
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