Industry news

May 24, 2013: LSE Offers Single-Stock Options Trading; U.S. options clearer moves to end trade type dominated by Nasdaq; EnterNext, NYSE Euronext’s new SME marketplace, goes live

London Stock Exchange plans to begin single-stock options trading next month. Options clearinghouse OCC plans to undo dividend-linked options trading, something that has been popular on Nasdaq’s option-trading platform. NYSE Euronext opens the door and turns on the lights at Enternext, its new small-to-medium company trading venue.

First Read

CBOE weights its regulatory role
Lynne Marek – Crain’s
CBOE Holdings Inc. Executive Chairman Bill Brodsky said the options exchange operator could eventually decide not to carry all of the regulatory duties it’s shouldering today. CBOE is the only major securities exchange that has its own in-house regulatory operation, but with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently becoming more “aggressive” with respect to such roles, it may let go of those duties.
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***** Lots of giving up of roles at the CBOE annual meeting.

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CBOE Begins Disseminating New Volatility Index On CME Group’s 10-Year U.S. Treasury Note Options Contract
Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and CME Group (CME) have announced that, as part of an agreement between the exchanges, CBOE today began disseminating values for a new volatility benchmark index using futures options data on CME Group’s 10-year U.S. Treasury note contract.
jlne.ws/10sywRI

***** Can volatility be a negative number?

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NYSE says to spin off, not sell Euronext
AFP
NYSE Euronext will spin off European stock exchange group Euronext via an initial public offer rather than sell it following its merger with InterContinentalExchange (ICE), a senior executive said Thursday.
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***** This makes a lot of strategic sense.

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OptionsCity Expands Management Team, Renews Commitment to Customer Care
OptionsCity Software announced today that Timo Pentner has joined the company as Executive Vice President of Services. Mr. Pentner will oversee all support, onboarding, and training operations in the U.S. and Europe.
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***** Mr. Penter comes from RTS and will be living in OptionsCity’s new CallTown.

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Banker Gladstone Paid Less Than Janitor Rises Arranging Futures
Matthew Leising – Bloomberg
When Jane Gladstone of Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR) first attended the Futures Industry Association annual meeting in Boca Raton in 2002 she was the only investment banker there. To capitalize on the opportunity, she threw a dinner for about 20 people. In the 11 years since, her Florida soiree has grown into the hottest ticket at the conference.
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***** Matt Leising with an excellent “Bloomberg-esque” article.

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Chicago HFT hires BofA Merrill prop team
Tim Cave – Financial News
A team of former traders at Bank of America Merrill Lynch has joined the Chicago-headquartered high frequency trading firm Jump Trading, Financial News has learnt.
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***** They jumped to Jump?

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Paul Tudor Jones comments on the lack of female traders
The Washington Post
At a University of Virginia symposium in late April, Paul Tudor Jones responded to a question about why the panel only featured “rich, white, middle-aged men.” Tudor responded by saying that trading requires intense focus, which he believes many women lose when they have children.
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***** I was in no shape after the birth of my children to think about markets either. Does that make me a “Girly-Man?”

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Tudor’s Jones Seeks to Clarify Remarks on Female Traders, Birth
John Lauerman – Bloomberg
Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones sought to explain his controversial remarks last month on the ability of women to be successful macro traders after giving birth, saying he had spoken “off the cuff.” In a video taped in April and posted on the Washington Post website today, Jones said that having a child is a “killer” for the ability of women to engage in macro trading because of the effect of having babies has on a woman’s focus.
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**JK – Tudor-Jones doing his best to dig out of it, and must answer to his three daughters as well. Stop digging T-J.

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Gary Gensler’s Crazy Weekend
Aaron Lucchetti – MoneyBeat – WSJ
While several official reports have already detailed brokerage firm MF Global MFGLQ -13.04%’s final days, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission this week gave its first detailed version of events that led up to the firm’s 2011 collapse.
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***** 7000 personal emails seems like a lot. I will say this in defence of Mr. Gensler. The aspects that caused him to recuse himself did not come into play until later in this train-wreck, so he was rightly involved until I believe the John Corzine company trading and margin issues came into play. But that is just my take.

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Dear Brussels, you asked about the oil price…
Javier Blas and Jack Farchy in London – FT.com
The European Commission last week sent a questionnaire to oil traders seeking information related to its probe into the potential manipulation of energy price benchmarks. The Financial Times obtained a summary of the questions that the EU sent to the industry, and we have imagined a possible response*.
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****** I believe the FT lacks a certain amount of imagination here.

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Wall St. on the silver screen: Pros pick top movies
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
In the annals of Hollywood, Wall Street has not been treated very kindly. From “Wall Street” to “Boiler Room”, “Trading Places” to “American Psycho”, the halls of …
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***** Was Bravehart about Wall Street?

***JM: I was really hoping Bart Chilton had some input in this article; but alas…

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How to Survive in Prison As a Hedge-Fund Millionaire
New York Magazine
In RajRaj’s case, make that “billionaire.” Life is tough for hedge-fund managers who go to prison for insider trading. There are no Bloomberg terminals, the food is terrible, and you have to associate with petty car thieves and drug dealers in the yard.
jlne.ws/10syvwU

***** Money can still talk

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Cocktail Reception and Educational Event, June 6, Kansas City
Join NYSE Liffe, G. H. Financials and Trading Technologies for an educational seminar and cocktail reception, Thursday, June 6, InterContinental Hotel at the Plaza, Kansas City, MO. Topics include opportunities in the milling wheat market, clearing and access to the world’s commodity markets, and creating automated trading strategies and reduced pricing for X Trader licensing. If you have any questions, or would like to register for the event, please contact Dayre Lashnits at DLashnits@nyx.com
(via email)

***** A trifecta of sponsors for this event.

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Bill Brodsky
jlne.ws/ctpvaF

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Robert Krause; Louis Burke; William J. Brodsky; Timo Pentner; Joe Sullivan

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The Volatility Exchange; OptionsCity Software Inc.

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Lead Stories

London Stock Exchange Offers Single-Stock Options Trading
Bloomberg
London Stock Exchange Group Plc will introduce trading in single-stock options next month, offering 19 contracts on energy and mining companies listed in the U.K.
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U.S. options clearer moves to end trade type dominated by Nasdaq
Reuters
The clearinghouse for all stock options said Thursday it will adopt a policy aimed at abolishing a dividend-linked trading strategy that critics say could destabilize markets if left unchecked. The change at Chicago-based OCC is likely to hurt market share at Nasdaq OMX Group Inc’s biggest options venue, where nearly all of U.S. dividend-linked options trading takes place.
jlne.ws/10syvwZ

EnterNext, NYSE Euronext’s new SME marketplace, goes live
NYSE Euronext (NYX) today announced the opening of EnterNext, its marketplace for SMEs. This new subsidiary is dedicated to companies that have a capitalisation of under E1 billion and already covers over 750 SMEs listed on the regulated market of NYSE Euronext and on NYSE Alternext. With a bold strategy and a NYSE Euronext proven capacity to deliver, EnterNext has been designed to facilitate the financing requirements and development of European SMEs that operate regionally, nationally and internationally.
jlne.ws/10syvx1

New CBOE CEO Aims to Take Volatility Franchise Global
JACOB BUNGE – WSJ.com
The new chief executive of the Chicago Board Options Exchange said Thursday that he plans to take its highly prized volatility franchise global and is open to deal making to bolster the company’s leading position in stock-options trading.
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Eurex to roll-out its EURIBOR Futures initiative
The international derivatives marketplace Eurex Exchange announced today that it will start a new initiative to increase the attractiveness of its short-term interest rate derivatives segment by offering new trading and market making incentives for its Three-Month Euribor Futures. These measures will become effective on 1 June 2013. Euribor Futures have already been listed on Eurex Exchange for several years.
jlne.ws/10syvx6

Hong Kong Police Make Fourth Arrest in Exchange Probe
Simon Lee – Bloomberg
Hong Kong police arrested a fourth man in its probe of Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange Ltd., widening a case begun by the Securities and Futures Commission for suspected irregularities in financial affairs. Police arrested a 60-year-old man yesterday, identified only by his surname Zhu, on suspicion of possession of false instruments, according to the Police Public Relations Branch. Three others were arrested the day before in the same probe.
jlne.ws/10syvx8

CME vows not to sway membership prices after MF Global sales
Reuters
CME Group Inc will never influence the price of its memberships, Executive Chairman Terry Duffy said on Wednesday after seats formerly owned by bankrupt broker MF Global Holdings Ltd were sold cheaply.
jlne.ws/10syvx9

An Agreement Opens Some Chinese Audit Papers to the U.S.
FLOYD NORRIS – NYTimes.com
Accounting regulators in the United States and China announced on Friday in Beijing that they had reached an understanding that could give American fraud investigators access to work papers of Chinese audit firms. Until now, American efforts to see such papers have been rejected.
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Oil Manipulation Inquiry Shows EU’s Hammer After Libor
Bloomberg
Statoil ASA (STL) sold a tanker of Norwegian crude valued at about $63 million to BP Plc (BP/LN) on May 9. The deal, along with six others so far this month, wasn’t subject to any oversight by financial authorities, yet would help establish the price for more than half the world’s oil.
jlne.ws/10syvxd

Regulatory

Obama nominates Senate aides to serve as SEC commissioners
Reuters via Yahoo! News
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama nominated two U.S. Senate aides on Thursday to serve as members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency tasked with policing Wall Street.
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IOSCO Emerging Market Regulators Emphasised The Need For Stronger Voice In Shaping Global Regulatory Reform To Reflect Emerging Markets’ Position
jlne.ws/10syysB

ESMA Vacancy Notice – Officer (Corporate Finance) – Deadline 27 June 2013
Job Title: Officer – Corporate Finance
jlne.ws/10syxoz

ESMA Vacancy Notice – Policy Officer (Investor Protection & Intermediaries) – Deadline 27 June 2013
Job Title: Policy Officer – Investor Protection & Intermediaries
jlne.ws/10syysG

ESMA Vacancy Notice – Assistant – Deadline 27 June 2013
Job Title: Assistant
jlne.ws/10syysH

Exchanges & Trading Facilities

Frankfurt Stock Exchange calculates indicator for private investor sentiment
Frankfurt Stock Exchange is now measuring the expectations of private investors for the first time with its Bull/Bear Index. Until now, the indicator only measured the expectations of institutional investors. The survey has now also been extended to include questions on individual securities and point forecasts.
jlne.ws/10syysJ

LME Launches Asian Helpdesk In Hong Kong
The London Metal Exchange (LME) this week opened its Asian Helpdesk, which will provide full technology support for users throughout the Asian trading day. The new Systems Operations desk is located at the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) New Generation Data Centre in Tseung Kwan O.
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CBOE Holdings, Inc. Announces 2013 Annual Meeting Results – Two New Directors Elected – Edward T. Tilly Becomes Chief Executive Officer
CBOE Holdings, Inc. announced the stockholder voting results from its 2013 Annual Meeting held today.
jlne.ws/10syxoJ

NASDAQ OMX Stockholders Elect Members To Board Of Directors
Shareholders elected all nominated directors at the Annual Meeting of Stockholders for The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ). Board members Steven D. Black, Börje E. Ekholm, Robert Greifeld, Glenn H. Hutchins, Essa Kazim, John D. Markese, Ellyn A. McColgan, Thomas F. O’Neill, James S. Riepe, Michael R. Splinter, and Lars R. Wedenborn were elected to their positions. All will serve one-year terms.
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CME Group Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend
CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today declared a second-quarter dividend of $0.45 per share, payable June 25, 2013, to shareholders of record as of June 10, 2013.
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BM&FBOVESPA Has Record Number Of Trades In BM&F Segment
BM&FBOVESPA had a record 199,867 trades in the BM&F segment yesterday.
jlne.ws/10syyJa

Montreal Exchange Celebrates 25th Anniversary Of The BAX – Recognized World-Wide As Benchmark Indicator For Canadian Short-Term Interest Rates
Montréal Exchange Inc. (MX) today celebrates the 25th anniversary of the launch of its signature product, the Three-Month Canadian Bankers’ Acceptance Futures contract (BAX).
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Warsaw Stock Exchange Announces Changes To Exchange Management Board – Dariusz Kulakowski Appointed To The Management Board Of The Warsaw Stock Exchange
The WSE informs that the Exchange Supervisory Board at its meeting on 22 May 2013 has decided to make changes to the Exchange Management Board. Dariusz Kulakowski, General Director for Technology responsible for direct supervision of the organisation and operation of the WSE’s IT Department since 2006, has been appointed to the Management Board as a Member of the Management Board and the Chief Information Officer.
jlne.ws/10syxoP

GPWtr@der A Learning Platform For Investors Developed By WSE
As part of its educational initiatives addressed to investors, the Warsaw Stock Exchange has launched a unique learning platform for investments in futures: GPWtr@der. The system has been designed for novice investors who wish to expand their knowledge of the derivatives market and discover the practical mechanisms of investment in available financial instruments.
jlne.ws/10syxF4

London Stock Exchange Group Launches UK Single Stock Options
Press Release
From Monday 10 June 2013, Turquoise Derivatives, part of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), will offer trade reporting in 19 UK single stock options. The underlying stocks are predominantly constituents of either the FTSE 100 or FTSE 250. The new products will clear through LCH.Clearnet Ltd, alongside the current derivatives offering. Until the end of September 2013, no trade reporting, clearing or expiry fees will be charged.
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Program Trading Averaged 25.8 Percent of NYSE Volume during May 13-17
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Toronto Stock Exchange And TSX Venture Exchange Travel To Latin America – The Exchanges To Share Insight On The Canadian Capital Market
jlne.ws/10syyZF

Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

Yuan Gold Trade in Hong Kong Triples as Currency Gains Cut Risk
Bloomberg
Trading in gold using the Chinese currency has tripled in Hong Kong this year as the yuan’s rally to a 19-year high helps limit risks for jewelers.
jlne.ws/10syxVN

SAC lawyers met prosecutors to argue against charges
Reuters via Yahoo! News
By Emily Flitter and Matthew Goldstein NEW YORK – Steven A. Cohen’s lawyers made their best case argument a month ago to federal prosecutors about why the hedge fund billionaire and his SAC Capital Advisors should not be charged with criminal wrongdoing in a long-running insider trading investigation. But people familiar with the late April meeting said the lengthy presentation did not impress federal prosecutors
jlne.ws/10syyc4

Would You Take Financial Advice From an Algorithm?
CNBC
Financial advisors are warily embracing a rash of Web-based investment management tools that aim to replace traditional practices with algorithms and pros’ pay structure with a flat fee.
jlne.ws/10syyc5

Banks & Brokers

BGC Strengthens its Energy Practice with the Hire of Eleven Leading Brokers in Houston, Texas
BGC Partners, Inc., today announced that eleven leading energy brokers, all formerly with Landmark Power Exchange, have joined its growing Energy Practice.
jlne.ws/10syyZP

Goldman Adopts Business Practice Initiatives
Dow Jones
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it has adopted all 39 initiatives it proposed to strengthen its business practices in the wake of the financial crisis, a step designed to help both employees and clients move past one of most challenging chapters in the firm’s 147-year history.
jlne.ws/10syyZR

Goldman Sachs re-elects board, releases report
Market Watch
NEW YORK — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shareholders re-elected all twelve directors at the annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday. Shareholders also approved the firm’s executive compensation plan with 86% of the vote and the stock incentive plan with 68% of the vote.
jlne.ws/10syyZU

Citigroup Said to Hire Marangon for Brazil Corporate Bank
Bloomberg
Citigroup Inc. , the U.S. bank that sold its Credicard unit in Brazil last week, hired Marcelo Marangon, a former executive director of Banco Itau BBA SA, to lead its corporate bank in the country, according to a person familiar with the matter.
jlne.ws/10syzga

JPMorgan Chase promoting Sommers
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
JPMorgan Chase is promoting Barry Sommers to CEO of its consumer bank. He replaces Ryan McInerney, who is leaving the company to become Visa Inc.’s president.
jlne.ws/10syycd

Deutsche Bank Heads Cop to Mistakes in Wake of Scandals
HispanicBusiness.com
Deutsche Bank co-chief executives Juergen Fitschen and Anshu Jain admitted Thursday that mistakes had been made which damaged the reputation of Germany’s biggest bank but vowed to press on with a major restructuring of the lender.
jlne.ws/10syzgd

Diamond Said to Weigh Backing Barclays Alumni in Venture
Alexis Leondis – Bloomberg
Robert Diamond, who stepped down as head of Barclays Plc (BARC) last year amid a rate-rigging scandal, is considering backing a firm started by former executives at the bank’s investment unit that was acquired by BlackRock Inc. (BLK) in 2009, according to a person familiar with the matter.
jlne.ws/10syycl

Clearing & Settlement

OCC To Adopt A Policy To Restrict Exercises To Net Long Positions
OCC announced today that its Board of Directors approved the adoption of a policy that would require clearing members to restrict exercises in certain accounts, including market maker and joint back-office accounts to the extent each respective account is net long at the end of the trading day. The required netting would occur within each options series.
jlne.ws/10syzgg

CME Increases Margin Requirements on Nikkei 225 Index Futures
Bloomberg
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. is raising the margin requirements for speculators in Japanese stock futures after prices fell the most in two years.
jlne.ws/10syzgk

CME Clearing – Performance Bond Requirements – Equity Index Outrights and Inter-Commodity Spread Credits – Effective Friday, May 24, 2013
jlne.ws/10syB7O

Indexes & Products

Two new UBS ETFs launched on Xetra
jlne.ws/10syB7T

Athens Exchange: Changes In The Composition Of The Athex Indices
jlne.ws/10syB7X

Barclays Launches Europe-Focused ETN
jlne.ws/10syzwF

Technology

Broadway Technology eyes Asia with Westpac forex software deal
Philip Stafford – FT.com
Broadway Technology, a fast-growing US trading software maker, has made major steps into the Asian market with a deal to provide technology to trade foreign exchange for Westpac, the Australian bank. The group, whose technology is used in fixed income and forex markets, is targeting the region for growth as ever-rising technology costs force banks to rethink their attitudes to spending on IT.
jlne.ws/10syzwJ

Enforcement

Following a Bench Trial, Federal Court in Florida Orders Defendants William and Gregory Center to Pay Millions in Restitution and Civil Monetary Penalties for Operating a $28.4 Million Ponzi Scheme
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that Judge Daniel Hurley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, following a bench trial on April 24, 2013, entered a Final Judgment Order, ordering Defendant William Center, of Richmond, Virginia, to pay restitution of $455,430 individually and $8,652,140.41 jointly and severally with Trade, LLC, as well as a $4 million civil monetary penalty.
jlne.ws/10syzwL

ASIC appeals decision in Macquarie Bank class action settlement
jlne.ws/10syBok

Queensland man charged with market manipulation
jlne.ws/10syzwV

SIX Exchange Regulation: Sanction Proposal Against CI Com SA
jlne.ws/10syzwX

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority: Another Dominion Finance Director Pleads Guilty To FMA Charges
jlne.ws/10syzNc

Environmental & Energy

U.S. House votes to force approval of Keystone pipeline
Reuters
The House of Representatives approved a bill as expected on Wednesday declaring that a presidential permit was not needed to approve the Canada-to-Nebraska leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a move that would take a decision on the project away from the Obama administration.
jlne.ws/10VhfjV

House Passes Keystone Bill as White House Vows Veto
Bloomberg
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the eighth time congressional Republicans have advanced a measure promoting the project.
jlne.ws/10OSVzf

COLUMN-Keystone XL double standard: Tale of 2 pipelines: Campbell
Reuters
A casual observer familiar with the Keystone XL saga would think the United States was making it very hard to build any oil sands-related pipelines. But nothing could be farther from the truth.
jlne.ws/11cQCFW

Asia-Pacific

HSBC Plans First Singapore Cleared Yuan Bond
FOX Business
HSBC Holdings PLC plans to sell the first yuan-denominated bond to be cleared out of Singapore, in a step forward for the city-state which is trying to build itself into an offshore trading hub for the Chinese currency.
jlne.ws/10syBow

Shanghai Futures Exchange: Launch Of Trade Oders FOK & FAK
jlne.ws/10syzNf

Frontier Markets

Goldman Sachs to manage ETF of India state-run firms
The Wall Street Journal
India has appointed Goldman Sachs Asset Management (India) to create and launch an exchange-traded fund that will raise money from investors and invest in state-run companies, a senior finance ministry official said Friday.
jlne.ws/10syBEP

MCX Weekly Market Report May 17, 2013 – May 23, 2013
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