First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Late yesterday afternoon at the CME Group headquarters, the NIBA inducted its inaugural Hall of Fame class: Michael Liccar, Kevin Brennan, and the late Paul Georgy. Each, in his own unique way, was an early and enthusiastic contributor to the NIBA’s lasting success. Liccar volunteered […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Mandy Xu, head of derivatives market intelligence at Cboe Global Markets, has published new research report titled “Crossed Wires: Separating Perception From Reality,” with the subheadline “Perpetual Futures vs. 0DTE Options: Risk, Utility, and Investor Behavior.” The report draws a sharp distinction between bitcoin perpetual […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff I will be in Chicago tomorrow for some meetings and the NIBA Hall of Fame event at the CME Group building. I will be down on Thursday for the 35th Annual NIBA Conference, held at DePaul’s downtown campus. In addition to serving as the honorary […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Pat Kenny, whom I have long called the most interesting man in the world, has stepped away from Broadridge this summer after seeing the CQG acquisition through to its close — ending a 16-year run at CQG that began in July 2010 and culminated in […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Yesterday, Jeremy Grant sent me a WhatsApp message with a link to a Financial Times story reporting that Goldman Sachs was restricting employees’ access to prediction markets. This news came as prediction markets were setting volume records amid the global interest in the World Cup. […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The conflict between the CFTC and the CME Group continues. The CFTC announced it will stay a self-certification filing by CME Group that would have allowed 24/7 trading of crude oil futures as soon as July 10, invoking its authority under 17 C.F.R. 40.2(c) to […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Markets evolve through experimentation and not every new product fits neatly into existing rules. From single-stock futures and carbon markets to crypto derivatives, prediction markets, and perpetual futures, this story explores decades of financial innovation and the regulatory battles that follow. In my commentary “Novel […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Yesterday was a historic moment, as President Donald Trump pointed out, when the NYSE and Nasdaq opening bells were rung in the Oval Office on the first day of trading for Trump Accounts. The bell that was rung was custom-made for the event by NYSE’s […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff I spent the holiday weekend in Wisconsin, at my home in the Geneva Lake area, and on July 3 we experienced severe storms that produced straight-line winds of 90 to 100 miles an hour. The storm came on suddenly, and one boat on the lake […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff With Independence Day falling on Saturday, July 4, 2026, U.S. financial markets observe the holiday on Friday, July 3, when the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and the bond market are all closed. Ahead of the closure, equities trade a full session on Thursday, July […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The NIBA is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year and, as part of the celebration, has created a Hall of Fame. The inaugural Hall of Fame members to be honored prior to the July 17th 35th anniversary event, which is sponsored by CME Group, are […]
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