First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Helen Nicol, who recently passed away. Nicol was the head of product for CloudMargin at the time of her death. She also worked for Lombard Risk as product director for collateral, clearing and optimisation strategy and business […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff CME Group, which bills itself as the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, shattered records on February 25, 2025 with an unprecedented single-day trading volume of 67,124,571 contracts. This milestone surpassed the previous record set in March 2023 by nearly a million contracts. The surge was primarily […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The FTX bankruptcy is turning out to have a surprisingly positive outcome for most customers and creditors, despite the astronomical costs involved, Bloomberg reported. While the bankruptcy fees have ballooned to nearly $1 billion, making it one of the most expensive Chapter 11 cases in […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff A podcast series, Spoken Reality, has an episode titled “INTERVIEW: FDIC Employee Fired-Now She Can’t Work Anywhere” that tells that story of Jennifer. Jennifer, a dedicated FDIC examiner, was abruptly fired without warning or cause-just an email informing her of her immediate termination. Her role […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Today I published a story titled “Two Wisconsin Bartenders Walked Into a Futures Exchange and Both Built Illustrious Careers In The Industry” with the subheadline “One is going into the FIA Hall of Fame in March; The Other Should Be Inducted Soon.” It is the […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Welcome to the age of disinformation. This is a huge risk to the market. It was something that was against the rules of the exchanges back in the days of open outcry. But the Trump administration is opening the doors for a flood of disinformation […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Former Senator and ICE and Bakkt executive Kelly Loeffler was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be administrator of the Small Business Administration by a vote of 52 to 46. Both her home state senators in Georgia, who are Democrats, voted nay for her nomination […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff President Donald Trump signed an executive order placing independent agencies under White House control, significantly expanding presidential authority and setting the stage for legal battles, Politico reported. The order, influenced by budget chief Russ Vought, aligns with the unitary executive theory, which asserts the president’s […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The VOO is bigger than the SPY, which means that Vanguard has unseated State Street for the title of the world’s biggest exchange-traded fund, Bloomberg reported. Bloomberg said, “The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (ticker VOO) now commands nearly $632 billion in assets after raking in […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Today we are updating a couple of sections in JLN, combining them into one and adding a new section to bring focus to an emerging and encompassing risk to global markets. The Ukraine Invasion and Middle East Conflict sections are being combined into a new […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The latest Financial Times commentary by Mohamed El-Erian warns that policy volatility under Trump could undermine U.S. economic exceptionalism and stall corporate investment. While businesses initially welcomed deregulation and tax cuts, the rapid-fire pace of tariffs, immigration policies, and regulatory shifts is now causing hesitation. […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff With the announcement yesterday that NYSE is moving NYSE Chicago to Texas, I would like to reach out to any former traders and brokers on the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX) or a previous iteration, the Midwest Stock Exchange, and ask them if they would like […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Former CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz is President Trump’s pick as the new CFTC chairman, Bloomberg reported yesterday. JLN reported the news on LinkedIn based on the same document Bloomberg’s report cited. Quintenz previously headed the CFTC Technology Advisory Committee, of which I was a member. […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Valentine’s Day is approaching. I can always tell because I get a love note in my inbox from the CFTC about romance scams The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has launched “Dating or Defrauding?”, a national awareness campaign to warn Americans about relationship investment […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff ICE’s Jeff Sprecher stars in a short splashy video shown on LinkedIn about how ICE is enhancing market access and transparency, starting with energy, expanding into fixed income, and now transforming the mortgage industry. The Financial Times’ Robin Wigglesworth‘s FT Alphaville column on sovereign bonds, […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff It appears the CFTC is not immune to the administrative chaos that has marked the beginning of the Trump administration. Yesterday afternoon, Bloomberg published a story accusing Acting Chair Caroline D. Pham of having removed the head of human resources at the CFTC-a person the […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) delivered a stellar performance in 2024, marking its 19th consecutive year of record revenues. The company reported net revenues of $9.3 billion, a 16% year-over-year increase, with GAAP diluted EPS of $4.78 (up 14%) and adjusted diluted EPS of $6.07 (up 8%). […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Robinhood Markets has halted its planned launch of Super Bowl LIX event contracts after the CFTC formally requested that customers be prevented from accessing sports event contracts, Benzinga reported. The product, developed with Kalshi and aimed at the Feb. 9 NFL championship game, was available […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff CME Group reported a record January 2025 average daily volume (ADV) of 25.7 million contracts, a 2% year-over-year increase, driven by strong performance across key asset classes. Interest Rate derivatives led with 11.7 million contracts, while Equity Index products reached 7 million ADV. Energy and […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Friday afternoon, the CME Group shared the sad news via LinkedIn that longtime CME member and former board member Mike Dowd had passed away. Dowd was 67 and was a co-founder of the Dowd Wescott Group. You can find his obituary in the Chicago Tribune […]
Read article