Industry news

July 15, 2013: A Trillion Dollar Source Of New Funding? The SEC’s New ‘Reg D’; U.S. Regulators Approve Stricter Trading Rules Overseas; Downside of a British E.U. Exit

SEC ruling should help funding for early-stage ventures.  Regulators get compromise on cross-border regulations.  If Britain leaves the EU London may feel the pinch.

First Read

It’s been quite a summer for Turkey – once a darling emerging economy for investors, the country has been turned on its ear over, of all things, a planned shopping mall on a park in Istanbul. That snowballed into massive demonstrations airing a litany of complaints against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and sent investors to the exits.

But in the longer term view, Turkey has made tremendous strides economically. The consolidation of its equities and derivatives markets into the Borsa Istanbul is considered a critical step in the development of its capital markets growth.

This special report features: a feature article on Turkey, a Q&A with Valerie Bannert-Thurner on Nasdaq OMX’s partnership with Borsa Istanbul and video interviews with key players in the Turkish capital markets.

- SPONSORS -

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Intern Education Series Kicks off Tomorrow
Tomorrow is the beginning of the Intern Education Series we have organized. The first event will be held in the Auditorium at the CME Group headquarters at 20 South Wacker. The room holds 200 people, compared to the 100 people limit of the CBOT Visitor’s Center Auditorium, so we have plenty of room for more attendees for tomorrow event.

Information to sign up for a single event, or for the whole series is located at www.johnlothiannewsletter.com.

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Integrations of Cash Equity Markets, Clearing Functions, and Self-regulatory Functions
On Tuesday, July 16, 2013, as scheduled, the cash equity market, clearing functions, and self-regulatory functions of Osaka Securities Exchange will be integrated with those of Tokyo Stock Exchange, Japan Securities Clearing Corporation, and Tokyo Stock Exchange Regulation, respectively.
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***** Are you ready for this? Our next Special Report is on Asia. We are looking for sponsors for the Asia Special Report. Contact me at johnlothian@johnlothian.com for more information.

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Comment: Exchanges can crowdfund recovery
By Peter Randall
‘Disruptive technology’ offers a chance to move savings from investors to entrepreneurs
Find a winning strategy and copy it could be the simplest business advice ever cited. But for the financial infrastructure industry, it’s proved more of a challenge.
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**** Clayton Christensen applied to corporate equity raising.

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Defending Clearing
Terry Duffy on the FT Trading Room
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**** CME’s Executive Chairman and President appears on video channel of the FT Trading Room.

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High-Frequency Trading Is Making a Joke of the Markets
By Yahoo! Finance
By Jon Najarian
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made!” –Groucho Marx
I suspect the SEC, FINRA, and CFTC are big fans of Groucho Marx, or at least his observations on fair dealing. How else could they justify turning a blind eye to a global media powerhouse such as Reuters selling early access to market-moving information? How could these authorities not condemn a practice like high-frequency trading (HFT), which causes significant market disruptions on a daily basis and destroys investor confidence?
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***** I beg to differ from my friend Jon Najarian. Investors have little to fear from HFT. Traders on the other hand have to compete with these speedy competitors and that is a different story.

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5 Reasons Dodd Frankenstein is Broke
By Ron DeLegge
ETFguide
Has the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 really succeeded? How much has really changed over the past three years?
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***** Name calling turns me off as a reader. And this writer has a book to sell.

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Former Hedge-Fund Manager Andy Kessler Blames Homeless Problem On Volunteers
Opposing Views
A former hedge-fund manager might have come up with the solution to the homeless problem in America — stop feeding them. In an op-ed that ran in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Andy Kessler seemed to make the argument that shelter workers and volunteers — including his own teenage son — are enabling the homeless by giving them food . “My 16-year-old son volunteers with an organization that …
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***** Yes, people of faith who are doing God’s work are the cause of homelessness. Or, we will always have the poor and how we care for those less fortunate than ourselves is the true measure of our civilization.

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A mega-camp adds to the Boy Scouts’ troubles
By Robin Respaut and Brian Grow
In the misty, oak-filled woods of West Virginia, the Boy Scouts of America are building their answer to Disney World.
Known as The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, the 10,600-acre park opens Monday, when 30,000 scouts are expected to visit for the quadrennial National Jamboree. The Summit will have more than five miles of zip lines, a whitewater-rafting circuit, a 120-foot tree house and a stadium for 85,000 people.
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***** My son Robby and 3 other boys from my Boy Scout Troop left with the rest of the scouts from the Three Fires Council contingent to go to the National Jamboree at the Summit. They will be there until July 24. I would expect fundraising will do better when the boys come home from Jambo all full of scout spirit.

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MarketsWiki

MarketsWiki Page of the Day
CFTC Cross-Border Guidance
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MarketsWiki Recent Updates

People

Elizabeth A. Duke; John P. Kelley; Anthony Belchambers

Statistics

41,727,608 pages viewed, 7,586 articles, 161,996 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

Lead Stories

A Trillion Dollar Source Of New Funding? The SEC’s New ‘Reg D’
Forbes
This week’s SEC ruling should create a boom in additional funding for early-stage ventures from accredited investors. In a move that should create a boom in deal flow and investment activity for early stage companies, the SEC amended its rules this week to permit general solicitation of private security offerings. Industry
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***** John Lothian Productions is your source for developing effective marketing for your hedge fund. Contact us today.

U.S. Regulators Approve Stricter Trading Rules Overseas
Federal regulators reached a last-minute compromise on Friday to expand their oversight far beyond American shores, overcoming internal squabbles and Wall Street lobbying to rein in some of the overseas trading that imploded during the financial crisis.
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***** They also approved stricter rules over hill and over dale.

Finance set to pass tech as most profitable U.S. industry
Written by John Shinal For USA Today
SAN FRANCISCO — Since the near-collapse of the U.S. financial sector in 2008, the technology industry consistently has been the most-profitable part of this country’s economy. In 2012, tech companies contributed almost a fifth of all profit reported by the corporations in the S&P 500 index, slightly more than the earnings of financial services companies. Yet if those same large companies report second-quarter results over the next few weeks that are in line with Wall Street expectations, finance will be well on its way to overtaking tech this year to once again become the U.S. industry that earns the most annual profit.
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***** Did the count the FCM business in this?

Downside of a British E.U. Exit
New York Times
Of the many industries that would be hurt by Britain leaving the European Union, the City of London is the most prominent.
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Reckless Banking, Inadequate Rules
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD, NY Times
Gary Gensler, the reform-minded chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, got the best deal he could on Friday, when the commission voted 3 to 1 to approve guidance on how new rules on derivatives will apply internationally, as required under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. But, in the face of unified opposition to strong “cross-border” regulation — from the big banks; their government allies in both the United States and Europe; and a swing-vote Democrat on the commission, Mark Wetjen — the deal falls short of what’s needed to protect American taxpayers and the global economy from the calamitous effects of reckless bank trades.
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Hedge Fund Ads: Good for Them, Bad for You
The Exchange via Yahoo! Finance
By Roger Whitney Now that the Securities and Exchange Commission has lifted a decades-old ban prohibiting hedge funds from advertising to the public, investors of the world have yet another temptation they’ll need to avoid. Although they’re still limited to … Continue reading ?
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Finra Expands Trace, U.K. Ring Fencing, FACTA: Compliance
Bloomberg
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the non-governmental regulator of brokerages, is moving to disclose trade information on additional types of securitized debt.
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SEC frustrated over pace of U.S. financial crisis reforms
Reuters via Yahoo! News
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON – Top Securities and Exchange Commission officials are frustrated over lack of progress in finalizing rules for credit rating agencies and asset-backed securities, seen by regulators as major drivers of the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Two of the SEC’s five commissioners told Reuters recently that the federal agency needed to do a better job …
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SEC takes Goldman’s ‘Fabulous Fab’ to trial in civil fraud case
Reuters via Yahoo! News
By Nate Raymond NEW YORK – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission heads to trial Monday against a former Goldman Sachs bond trader in a case it says highlights what went wrong on Wall Street in the financial crisis. Jury selection begins in federal court in New York in the civil fraud case against Fabrice Tourre, 34, who the SEC says misled investors in an ill-fated mortgage …
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SEC lets big fish go while prosecuting Fab
New York Post
Remember Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre, the young bon vivant and Goldman Sachs derivatives trader whose boastful e-mails made him a convenient punch line back in 2010? It was a time when there was genuine fear on Wall Street that some of its biggest fishes might actually go to prison for…
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CFTC Passes Derivatives Rules for U.S. Firms Abroad
By Dow Jones Business News
By Jamila Trindle
WASHINGTON–The Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted 3-1 to approve guidelines for how it will apply U.S. derivatives rules abroad while delaying some of the main requirements for several months.
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US ratifies cross-border swaps rules
By Gregory Meyer in New York
The top US derivatives regulator has agreed a framework for policing offshore dealing after forging an 11th-hour compromise with European officials wary of Washington’s reach into other markets.
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Elizabeth Warren’s Long Game Against Wall Street
New York Magazine
She’s doing more than you think. Yesterday, Senator Elizabeth Warren undertook a big act of financial rabble-rousing, by introducing a bill that would reinstate key provisions of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that were repealed in 1999. The new bill would essentially force big bank holding companies like Citigroup and Bank of America to split in half — commercial banking on one side, investment …
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Markit launches new front office analytics solution
Markit Integrated Resource Management solution to enable dynamic management of balance sheet resources and optimise trading decisions
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Regulatory

US agency delays derivatives oversight overseas
By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — A policy allowing a U.S. agency to regulate derivatives trading overseas to help reduce risks to the global financial system will be delayed under a vote Friday.
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Cadwalader Releases Lofchie’s Guide to Hedge Fund Regulation; Third Major Volume in On-Line Trilogy on Financial …
PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance
NEW YORK, July 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, a leading counselor to global financial institutions and corporations, today announced the release of Lofchie’s Guide …
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The feds are finally cracking down on ratings agencies. What took so long?
Washington Post
As the government’s lawsuit against the rating agencies starts to take shape, let’s look back at how the agencies were able to do so much damage in the first place.
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Judge finds fairytale analogy as ex-Goldman Sachs trader faces SEC charges he duped investors
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
NEW YORK — A judge presiding over the civil trial of a former Goldman Sachs trader accused of misleading investors about the true prospects of their bet on a package of mortgage-based securities has summed up the charges against him with a fairytale, saying it’s as if he’s accused of handing Little Red Riding Hood an invitation to grandmother’s house while concealing the fact the invitation was …
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A new Glass-Steagall: A good start | Jon Talton
Seattle Times
A bi-partisan group of senators want to bring back Glass-Steagall. Good on Elizabeth Warren, John McCain, Maria Cantwell and Angus King. The proposed legislation would separate federally insured banks that offer checking accounts, loans, etc. from institutions that want to do risky investment bankin
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Finra Moving to Expand Disclosures on Securitized-Debt Trading
Bloomberg
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the non-governmental regulator of brokerages, is moving to disclose trade information on additional types of securitized debt.
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Despite protests, you still can’t sue your broker
CNN Money
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U.K. Regulators Consider Criminal Probe Into Oil-Price Fixing
By Lananh Nguyen
The U.K. antitrust regulator is considering a criminal probe into oil-price manipulation as European Union officials conduct a civil investigation.
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Wall Street regulators turn to better technology to monitor markets
Washington Post
Software improves the organizations’ ability to detect trading anomalies and understand market phenomena.
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House panel probes risk council role in SEC money fund rule
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
A House of Representatives Republican who oversees an investigative committee said on Friday the new U.S. systemic risk council overstepped its authority with an attempt to push through rules to rein in …
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Deloitte paper on CFTC and EU OTC derivatives regulation
Deloitte published a research paper that we recommend to read. The comparative paper highlights how the U.S. and EU regulatory regimes for over-the-counter derivatives markets are highly aligned and how they lead to a similar outcome.
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ESMA: New discussion paper details central clearing of OTC derivatives
On 12 July the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced a new discussion paper to prepare regulatory technical standards (RTS) that will be used to support mandatory CCP clearing of OTC derivatives under EMIR.
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BP, Shell, Statoil Face FTC Scrutiny in U.S. Oil Probe
BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Statoil ASA (STL) are under scrutiny by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission as the agency probes whether they manipulated oil benchmarks published by Platts, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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13-174MR ASIC’s insolvency notices website – one year on
Monday 15 July 2013
It is now one year since ASIC launched the insolvency notices website. The website, which took over from a system where notices were advertised in the print media or gazette, was launched on 1 July 2012, and provides a single point for searching almost all notices on external administration and company deregistration.
On 1 July 2013, the cost to publish a notice on the website changed. The vast majority of notices that previously attracted a fee of $400 now cost $145, while notices that attracted a fee of $64, increased slightly to $66 due to indexation.
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Exchanges & Trading Facilities

Dark Pools Face New U.S. Disclosure Requirements From Finra
Bloomberg
Securities regulators approved a plan to require U.S. off-exchange markets such as dark pools to boost disclosure about the transactions they handle.
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NASDAQ OMX Expands the Global Index Family
Twenty-One Thousand New Indexes Provide Investors a Broad Representation of the Global Investable Marketplace
NEW YORK, July 15, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced the introduction of the second suite of the NASDAQ Global Index Family – resulting in the launch of more than 21,000 new NASDAQ Global indexes.
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SIX Swiss Exchange welcomes another new participant
Florint Capital set to benefit from state of the art trading technology and attractive trading segments with outstanding liquidity.
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Eurex – Highlights of Q2 in fixed income futures & options
Following the trend from the first quarter of 2013, our fixed income products continued to display strong growth in the second quarter of 2013, especially the futures on French Long-Term Government Bonds (FOAT) and Italian Long-Term Government Bonds (FBTP).
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

Hedge Funds Bought Gold in Biggest Rally Since 2011: Commodities
By Joe Richter – Bloomberg
Hedge funds raised bets on higher gold prices for a second week as comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke damped expectations for an imminent tapering of stimulus. Futures rose the most since 2011.
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Hedge Funds Have Actually Been Pretty Good Stock Pickers This Year
Business Insider
The hedge fund industry has been taking a lot of heat in recent days and years for delivering poor performance at a high cost.
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Sorry, but hedge funds aren’t going away
Hedge funds may be a media piñata right now, but they aren’t going away. Nor should they.
By Josh Brown, contributor
FORTUNE — Over the last month, the low hum of anti-hedge fund murmuring has exploded into a full-on festival of malice – thousands of investors, having spotted the 2-and-20 emperors sans clothing for the umpteenth time, are now reveling in their newfound courage to say it out loud:
“I don’t get it.”
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How to advertise your hedge fund
Commentary: This space for rent
The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to lift an 80-year ban on hedge-fund advertising on Wednesday, leaving some money managers to wonder, how do I advertise my hedge fund?
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Larry Robbins’ Obamacare Trade Helps Him Become One Of The Nation’s Hottest Hedge Fund Managers
Forbes
Lawrence Robbins, who runs Glenview Capital Management, has become one of the nation’s hottest hedge fund managers, partly by betting on hospitals that he thinks will benefit from Obamacare.
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Hedge funds see big inflow of cash
CNNMoney.com via Yahoo! Finance
Hedge funds see big inflow of cash
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Danish funds sue banks in U.S. for blocking CDS exchange-trading
Reuters via Yahoo! News
By Karen Brettell NEW YORK – Four Danish pension funds have filed a lawsuit against twelve large banks, accusing them of increasing costs for investors trading in the $27 trillion credit default swap market by stopping exchanges from entering the market. The case, filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, follows a similar suit filed in…
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Small hedgie bests the rest
By MICHELLE CELARIER, NY Post
June was a tough month for most hedge funds — but not for one small manager who foresaw the commodities rout.
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Banks & Brokers

DealBook: JPMorgan Chase Faces Questions on Potential New Capital Rules
New York Times
JPMorgan officials demurred on a conference call about the financial impact of a proposed regulation. Analysts have estimated that it would have to raise capital by $40 billion to $50 billion at the subsidiaries in order to meet proposed regulatory guidelines.
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Bankers Are Balking at a Proposed Rule on Capital
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON, NY Times
OUR nation’s largest banks have grown accustomed to regulators who are respectful, deferential and mindful of these institutions’ needs and desires. So, last week, when federal financial overseers unveiled a potent new weapon against too-big-to-fail banks, it seemed as if — just maybe — the winds in Washington were shifting.
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Morgan Stanley commodities marketing head departs
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
Morgan Stanley’s global head of commodities marketing, Boris Shrayer, has left the bank, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. Shrayer could not immediately be reached for comment at …
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Citigroup 42% Profit Rise Beats Estimates as Stock Trading Gains
Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, posted a 42 percent increase in second- quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as stock-trading revenue surged and losses on unwanted assets declined.
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Clearing & Settlement

OCC Announces the Promotion of James Knoeck to Senior Vice President – Chief Audit Executive
CHICAGO, Ill., July 13, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — via PRWEB – OCC announced today that James Knoeck has been promoted to Senior Vice President – Chief Audit Executive. Mr. Knoeck joined OCC in September as Vice President — Head of Internal Audit from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.
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LCH Clearnet receives approval to clear credit default swaps for US members
LCH.Clearnet has been granted permission to start clearing credit default swaps (CDS) for US clearing members through its credit default swap clearing business, dubbed as CDSClear.
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Indexes & Products

5 Misperceptions About VXX
By Jill Malandrino
**Special Feature from the CBOE’s Options Institute**
Russell Rhoads, CFA is an instructor with The Options Institute at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He is a financial author and editor having contributed to multiple magazines and edited several books for Wiley publishing. In 2008 he wrote Candlestick Charting For Dummies and is the author of Option Spread Trading: A Comprehensive Guide to Strategies and Tactics. Russell also wrote Trading VIX Derivatives: Trading and Hedging Strategies using VIX Futures, Options and Exchange-Traded Notes. In addition to his duties for the CBOE, he instructs a graduate level options course at the University of Illinois – Chicago and acts as an instructor for the Options Industry Council.
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What Is An Index Fund? Investing Basics
Forbes
What is an index fund? The name implies the answer, but there are some fundamental concepts to understand before buying an index fund as an investment.
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Ex-NYSE data chief joins Markit in equities role
Tim Cave, Financial News
Mark Schaedel, a former head of data at NYSE Euronext who was at the heart of an industry initiative to bring greater price transparency to Europe’s equities markets, has joined Markit to oversee its suite of equities products.
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Proposed ETFs piling up
ETFs OK not PDQ for SEC.
There are 982 exchange-traded funds that are just waiting to be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Bloomberg, citing figures from Index Universe.
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Technology

Advent Named “Best Research Management Tool” at Systems in the City Awards
Marketwired via Yahoo! Finance
Advent Software, Inc. , a leading provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, today announced that it has been awarded ‘Best Research Management Tool’ at the 2013 Systems …
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Tullett teams with S&P Capital IQ on data deal
Tim Cave, Financial News
Interdealer-broker Tullett Prebon has signed a “long-term, strategic partnership” with S&P Capital IQ to distribute its data through the research firm.
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ITRS to monitor South African Bank new multi-asset platform
15th July 2013, London: ITRS Group Ltd, the leading global provider of performance monitoring and management technology, has today announced that ITRS Geneos is set to monitor a new multi-asset
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Enforcement

CFTC Obtains Default Judgment and Permanent Injunction against California Resident Michael J. Leighton for Defrauding Commodity Pool Participants
Court Orders Leighton to Pay over $2.3 Million in Sanctions and Restitution and Permanently Bars Him from the Commodities Industry
Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that Judge Philip S. Gutierrez of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California entered an Order of Default Judgment and Permanent Injunction against Michael J. Leighton of Torrance, California. The Order, entered on July 8, 2013, stems from a CFTC enforcement action filed on May 8, 2012 charging Leighton with solicitation fraud and issuing false statements in connection with the operation of a commodity trading pool (see CFTC Release 6256-12).
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SEC Halts Texas-Based Forex Trading Scheme
Washington, D.C., July 12, 2013 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an emergency asset freeze against an unregistered money manager and his companies in Plano, Texas, who are charged with defrauding investors in a foreign currency exchange trading scheme.
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Gasparino: Feds Too Focused on Insider Trading
TheStreet.com
Regulators missed the financial crisis and Madoff because they were too focused on insider trading, says Charles Gasparino, author of Circle of Friends.
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SEC bans three ex-Madoff employees from securities industry
Reuters via Yahoo! News
By Suzanne Barlyn – The Securities and Exchange Commission has barred three former employees of Bernard Madoff’s now defunct brokerage and investment advisory firm from the securities industry for assisting the convicted Ponzi schemer with his multi-billion dollar scam, according to orders from the agency. The SEC released orders late Thursday permanently barring David Kugel, Eric …
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Environmental & Energy

Carbon market could enable California polluters
Salon.com
Timber, dairy and chemical companies are already lining up to sell credits to the biggest greenhouse gas emitters
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Climate change will disrupt energy supplies, DOE warns
USA Today
U.S. energy supplies will likely face more severe disruptions because of climate change and extreme weather, which have already caused blackouts and lowered production at power plants, a government report warned Thursday.
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U.S. court says biofuel producers must face carbon emissions rules
Reuters
Biofuel producers will be subject to rules regulating carbon emissions, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday, in a decision hailed by environmental groups.
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Rudd Seeks to Ditch Carbon Tax With Eye on Election Campaign
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd plans to accelerate Australia’s move to emissions trading, scrapping predecessor Julia Gillard’s clean-energy policy that’s left the nation with the world’s highest carbon price.
jlne.ws/12qhQv4

Rising Temps, Shrinking Snowpack Fuel Western Wildfires
Climate Central — Wildfire trends in the West are clear: there are more large fires burning now than at any time in the past 40 years and the total area burned each year has also increased. To explore these trends, Climate Central has developed this interactive tool to illustrate how warming temperatures and changing spring snowpack influences fires each year.
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Asia-Pacific

FXCM Partners with CITIC Newedge Futures to Open New Gateway for Distinguished Forex Resources in China
NEW YORK & HONG KONG–(BUSINESS WIRE)–FXCM Inc. (NYSE:FXCM) (“FXCM”), a leading online provider of foreign exchange trading, today announced it will join forces with CITIC Newedge Futures Co., Ltd. (“CITIC Newedge Futures”, previously known as “CITIC Futures Brokerage Co., Ltd.”), in a strategic partnership to open a new gateway for first-class forex platform in China. Starting July 12, the partnership will further FXCM’s footprints into China, allowing more traders to experience the wide spectrum of resources FXCM has to offer.
jlne.ws/15xesjS

Shanghai gold, silver volumes surge to records and premiums rise
Resource Investor
Trading volumes for gold and silver on the Shanghai Futures Exchange jumped to record highs today a week after the bourse launched after-hours trading, driven by a surge in investment and hedging demand.
jlne.ws/1dzm0pm

Moody’s sounds alarm on Singapore banking
By Jeremy Grant in Singapore
Singapore’s banking sector received a rare caution after Moody’s, the rating agency, revised downward its outlook for the first time since the financial crisis over rapid loan growth and rising property prices in southeast Asia.
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China Wealth Eludes Foreigners as Stocks Earn 1% in 20 Years
By Weiyi Lim & Kana Nishizawa – Bloomberg
China’s 20-year economic boom has boosted the wealth of its 1.3 billion citizens at the fastest pace worldwide and spawned some of the biggest companies in history. Foreigners earned less than 1 percent a year investing in Chinese stocks, a sixth of what they would have made owning U.S. Treasury bills.
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Frontier Markets

UAE central bank asks lenders about exposure to Turkey
By Stanley Carvalho and Mirna Sleiman
ABU DHABI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates central bank has asked local commercial banks in the country to provide details of their financial exposure to Turkey by Tuesday, two bankers said on Monday.
jlne.ws/1anuaS3

DGCX H1 Volumes Up 101% Year-On-Year
• H1 2013 volumes reach 7,716,340 contracts, up 101% from last year
• Currency volumes in H1 increase by 112%
• Indian Rupee futures up 95% in H1
• June volumes rise 79% to reach record-breaking 1,593,150 contracts
Dubai, July 15, 2013: Trading volumes on the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) in the first half of 2013 registered a substantial year-on-year growth of 101%, reaching 7,716,340 contracts valued at US$ 268.85 billion. The significant increase was led by currency volumes, which were up 112% from H1 2012.
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Miscellaneous

Wall Street’s Hottest Address Is Not in New York
By Eamon Javers | CNBC
In computerized high-speed trading, as in real estate, location is everything. On Wall Street, high-speed firms pay fees to locate their computers in the same data centers that house stock exchange computers-so trades aren’t delayed by more than a few feet of fiber optic cable.
But in recent years, high-speed trading firms have quietly been able to add servers in a less expected place: The nation’s capital.
jlne.ws/1bC05Q5

Granny’s Gold Bars Are Key to Vietnam Push to Boost Dong
The target of Vietnam’s campaign to stabilize its currency is in the locked bedroom wardrobe of retired civil servant Vu Thi Huong: gold bars.
jlne.ws/12PMvll

Holder Falls Short on Obama Openness Pledge He Enforces
In her four years as the top U.S. diplomat, Hillary Clinton kept a running total of countries visited, miles traveled and hours spent in transit on the State Department website.
jlne.ws/1bBXPIH

Hong Kong Horse Bets Exceed Las Vegas Casinos’: Chart of the Day
Bets on horse races in Hong Kong are poised to exceed wagers at Nevada’s casinos for a second straight year, with the city’s sole legal outlet for gambling seeking to lure punters from neighboring Macau.
jlne.ws/15wZbzs

Summers Said to Show Interest in Fed Chairman Nomination
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers is indicating to President Barack Obama’s Wall Street supporters that he wants to become Federal Reserve chairman, according to people familiar with the matter, as he keeps in touch with senators who would vote on the nomination.
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