In this MarketsWiki Education video from our World of Opportunity event in Chicago, Rob Hocking, senior vice president, head of derivatives strategy at Cboe, explains what the VIX index is and how to manage risk using the VIX index and its related products, including VIX futures and options. In the complex options world, face to face negotiations between brokers and traders still take place, he says, and market makers still provide an important function.

John Lothian News today announces several promotions, including naming Managing Editor Sarah Rudolph to the role of editor-in-chief. Matt Raebel, currently an associate editor and Thom Thompson, currently a contributing editor, are promoted to the title of editor.

Bill Ulivieri, former CBOE market maker and Principal of Cenacle Capital Management LLC, is a veteran of the industry who’s done it all – including crypto trading. Ulivieri joins Matt at the JLN studio to discuss the benefits and shortcomings of digital assets as a store of value, and how he thinks bitcoin fits into the future of global finance.

Jitesh Thakkar, the Chicago computer programmer charged with aiding and abetting a market manipulation by supplying software, was back in court on Wednesday. Thakkar’s attorney, Renato Mariotti, presented his motion for summary judgment at least to forestall lengthy discovery by the CFTC.

In this video from MarketsWiki Education’s World Of Opportunity event in Chicago, Lori Kevin, managing director of operations for CSG, talks about the many security threats companies face in today’s digital world, including identity theft, of which she was a victim, and how to fight off these threats with the right policies and procedures.  

Today’s bid by Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX) to buy the London Stock Exchange Group for $36.6 billion is a conundrum in what otherwise would be a continuation of global consolidation among exchanges. 

On Friday last week Bakkt opened the Bakkt Warehouse for its bitcoin custody business, as it prepares for ICE US’s launch of futures trading on September 23. Bakkt is counting on the warehouse to be the unique selling point as it goes head-to-head with the CME’s 21-month old bitcoin futures. Many people in the cryptocurrency community have made much of Bakkt’s delivery feature, seeming to think this feature alone will push the price of bitcoin higher. 

Jordan Melamed is a former trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and a filmmaker. He is the son of CME Chairman Emeritus Leo Melamed. He followed his father’s footsteps to the trading floor of the CME. After a career trading in the open outcry markets he pursued a career as a filmmaker. He is the director of “Futures Past,” a story of the end of open outcry trading and the human element of trading and family.

At FIA IDX 2019 in London, John Lothian News sat down with Clive Furness, the managing director of Contango Markets Ltd., to talk about ESG (environmental, social and governance) and how it fits into commodity and index products, and why it’s a “social revolution” and not a fad.

It appears Congress still us little old options folks on the radar as the Options Market Stability Act is back in action! Also, JPMorgan has a Trump-related volatility measurement that we talk about in this week’s episode of “The Spread,” the last with Spencer Doar as host. 

In this video from MarketsWiki Education’s World of Opportunity event in Chicago, Exchange Analytics President Larry Israel talks about the role of ethics in the futures industry with the 1989 FBI sting at the CBOT and CME serving as a historical starting point.