First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Eurex announced significant organizational changes aimed at driving future growth effective April 1, 2025. The company will integrate activities across various asset classes, including equity/index, fixed income, currency, and repo. Matthias Graulich will lead the newly formed global products & markets team, while Jens Quiram […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff I have to beg for your indulgence. I know there is a lot of political news in the newsletter these days. That is the world we are living in, unfortunately. In fact, yesterday, Mark Carney, the new prime minister of Canada, said that Canada’s old […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff In the Langer, et al. v. CME Group, Inc., et al. class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs and defendants’ summary judgement presentations, along with a transcript of the summary judgment hearing on January 31, 2025, were posted to the CME’s CMELawsuit.com website. You can see the […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff President Donald Trump is breaking a key rule I lived by for many years that I learned from my mother-in-law, Betty Bergstrom. She had the practice of only being mad at one of her children at a time, lest two or more of them who […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff You know you’ve uploaded too many videos to YouTube in one day when the site tells you you’ve hit your daily limit and can’t upload any more for 24 hours. That’s exactly what happened on Sunday as I was migrating JLN video content from Vimeo […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Howard Lutnick, billionaire and current U.S. Secretary of Commerce, is under fire after saying his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn’t complain about a missed Social Security check, and that those who do are likely “fraudsters.” His remarks, made on the All-In Podcast, sparked widespread outrage, especially as […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The FIA published its February 2025 volume and open interest report showing that exchange-traded derivatives volume fell to 7.94 billion contracts in February 2025, the lowest since October 2022. This represents a 23% monthly decline and 51.7% year-over-year drop. Options trading, which reached 5.64 billion […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Today JLN published the first two videos from our FIA Boca50 coverage, an interview with Acting CFTC Chairman Caroline D. Pham and another with Blue Ocean‘s CEO Brian Hyndman. The videos are posted below and on www.johnlothiannews.com. This installment of the JLN Industry Leader series […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The Trump Administration has fired two Democratic FTC commissioners, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. Bloomberg has the story HERE, The Wall Street Journal HERE and the Financial Times has it HERE. Following her dismissal, FTC Commissioner Slaughter emailed me (and I am sure many […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The major league baseball season opened today in Tokyo with the Chicago Cubs playing the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Tokyo Dome. The Dodgers prevailed 4-1 in the opening game of a two-game series that featured a number of Japanese-born players, including the uber popular […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff I am still in Sarasota, FL, my travel plans thwarted by a huge storm front that swept across the U.S. spinning 52 tornados in the Southeast states I was about to travel through to drive back to the Midwest. I decided to wait until today […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The CFTC has published the script of the keynote address by Acting CFTC Chairman Caroline D. Pham to the FIA BOCA50 conference on Tuesday. You can read the entirety of the address HERE. Gold surged past $3,000 an ounce for the first time, fueled by […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Here is the opening bell of the NYSE being rung at the Boca Resort by DRW’s Don Wilson during the FIA Boca50 conference yesterday. Don Wilson, Jeff Sprecher, Terry Duffy, Mark Bagan, Laura Cha, and former Sen. Debbie Stabenow have all been officially inducted into […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff A couple of sharp-eyed/eared legal representatives who can help you with this matter wrote on LinkedIn: Former U.S. Attorney and Paul Hasting Attorney Renato Mariotti wrote: “Acting CFTC Chairman Caroline D. Pham announced a major 30-day compliance remediation initiative. In her keynote speech at the […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff In Walt Lukken’s opening remarks at the 50th International Futures Industry Conference (Boca50) on March 10, 2025, titled “Let the Magic Happen,” the FIA president and CEO reflected on significant industry milestones, including FIA’s five decades at the Boca resort, the 50th anniversary of the […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Welcome to FIA Boca week. It is beautiful in Florida and the conference started off well last night with an opening reception sponsored by NSE (India). It is nice to see NSE step up, as they are having a lot of success and there is […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a longtime bond trader, should understand inflation better than most, yet his recent comments dismissing the inflationary impact of tariffs reveal a disingenuous stance that misleads the American public. By claiming that inflation only comes from government spending/printing money and that […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The FIA released its 2025 derivatives industry survey, conducted by Crisil Coalition Greenwich, that revealed key insights into market sentiment and future trends. A majority of respondents anticipate increased trading activity in 2025, driven primarily by political instability and geopolitical conflict, rather than traditional economic […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Congratulations to Justin Llewellyn-Jones, who will become CEO of Trading Technologies International on March 31, replacing Keith Todd, who will stay on as deputy chairman, TT announced today. Llewellyn-Jones joined the company as COO in January 2024 after a 30-year career in fintech and financial […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff In 1994, the U.S. as part of the Budapest Memorandum agreed to provide security assurances to respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and existing borders in return for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons. Yesterday, President Donald Trump reneged on that agreement, halting all military aid to […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff I am sad to report the sudden passing of Meghan Grace Cashman, the youngest daughter of longtime CBOT member and FIA Hall of Fame member Thomas J. Cashman. Meghan died on February 20th at the age of 49. She was a graduate of the University […]
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