The JLN team was down in Doral, Fla. for the 2019 Options Industry Conference last week. This episode of “The Spread” covers some of the conference happenings (and a few other things that grind the host’s gears). 

Thursday afternoon as part of the FIA Law & Compliance Conference, Marc Nagel, attorney advisor to the derivatives training firm Exchange Analytics, moderated a panel composed of attorneys Gary DeWaal and Renato Mariotti discussing the recent federal criminal charges against computer programmer Jitesh Thakkar.

Quantitative Brokers spent 2018 building out its global footprint. With offices globally now, the firm offers 24/7 high touch support for its low touch offering – algorithms for best execution. In this video, Quantitative Brokers Executive Chairman Thomas Ascher talks about why traders need liquidity seeking algorithms.

There still exists some polarization between listed derivatives markets and OTC markets. In this video, Global Head of Loans at IHS Markit and CEO of MarkitSERV Brad Levy talks about why the gap between the two is slowly closing and the generational shift it is going to take to fully transition financial markets to a digitally-enabled world.

The 41st annual derivatives industry regulatory confabulation was called to order on Wednesday afternoon in Washington, DC, by Law & Compliance Division President Tammy Botsford.

Bcause, the cryptocurrency mining company whose name is most likely to be autocorrected by one’s phone, is attempting to fight its way out of bankruptcy. Its battle plan? Raise some capital and start new businesses.

Rosenthal Collins Group (RCG), the well known Chicago FCM, was recently acquired by London-based Marex Spectron. After a transition that took place over one freezing Chicago weekend, it has been fully integrated into the company and is now the RCG Division of Marex Spectron.

It was a big year for FIS as the company brought two of its business lines together. In this video, FIS Group President of Post Trade Services Andrew Whyte talks about client trends and the firm’s roadmap for 2019.

The recent case of United States v. Jitesh Thakkar demonstrated extraordinary government overreach that could result in a non-trader being liable for millions of dollars in trading losses even though the non-trader had no knowledge of the trading activity.  

TAs just about everyone who reads this newsletter knows, the criminal case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against Jitesh Thakkar dissolved last month when the judge dismissed the conspiracy to spoof charge and the jury split (10-2 for acquittal) on the two remaining spoofing charges.  

In this video, Eventus Systems CEO Travis Schwab talks about what clients are requesting in the regulatory technology space as well as Eventus’ plans for 2019. Eventus’ Validus platform was recently recognized at the 2019 RegTech Insight Awards.