First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff We missed including a story from Bloomberg yesterday about Miami International Holdings Inc.’s plans for a new trading floor in Miami. MIAX is building a 38,400-square-foot options trading pit and offices in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, according to Chief Communications Officer Andy Nybo, Bloomberg reported. I […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Yesterday we reported on The World Federation of Exchanges‘ “Ring the Bell” to mobilize for a climate initiative. JLN wants to applaud the individual exchanges that are participating in this important public display of support to address climate change and sustainability issues. The exchanges participating […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Today is GivingTuesday. According to the official GivingTuesday website, “GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good.” I encourage you to make a donation to your favorite charity, but also to a favorite charity of a […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff This newsletter is about non-price-oriented risks. Back when it started, the largest risk to the financial markets, including futures, options and securities trading, was the advent of electronic trading. Electronic trading was the runaway train that was going to run over everything and everyone in […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) is getting ready to launch China treasury bond futures in Hong Kong, if approved by the regulators, The Trade reported and HKEX and Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission announced. It appears a contributing factor to Sam Altman’s firing […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff SBF may have some company depending on what sentence CZ gets for the criminal charges he pled guilty to as part of the settlement yesterday with the SEC, CFTC and DOJ. The Financial Times reported “Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao has resigned and pleaded guilty […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Tuesday’s Children, the charity that supports military families and the 9/11 community, honored retired market analyst Richard Repetto at their Casino Night fundraiser on November 15, 2023. Rich gave a speech at the event that you can view on YouTube HERE. After the SEC Kraken […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff OpenAI fired CEO Sam Altman, then spent the weekend trying to figure out how to bring him back after pressure from executives and investors. In the end, Microsoft hired Altman to lead a “new advanced research team,” the Financial Times reported. You will see the […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Last night’s fundraiser in Chicago in support of the Pathway to Adventure Council of the Boy Scouts of America at the CBOT Building was a big success. There was a bigger crowd than expected and the total raised is $115,000 and counting. The LaSalle Street […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Tomorrow, November 17, is the last day to nominate someone for the 2024 FIA Hall of Fame. The FIA is always looking for balanced representation globally and across gender, the latter of which is sometimes harder to find in an industry that 30 or 40 […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Citadel’s Ken Griffin was a bit chatty with Bloomberg News yesterday in an interview in which he opined on Miami replacing New York as a financial center, whether work from home would fuel corporate job cuts, the Fed’s credibility if it cuts rates too soon […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of my mother’s passing. It happened right in the middle of FIA EXPO, the morning of the last day of the conference. It was a tough day. As I have written before, my nephew Andrew Lothian, who sings under […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The New York Times has an opinion piece by former Federal Prosecutor Ankush Khardori titled “Financial Fraudsters Have Escaped Justice for Far Too Long.” He argues that we won the battle against Mr. Bankman-Fried, but we are losing the war. Cboe today announced that Cboe […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The Japan Securities Clearing Corporation has shifted to a VaR margin methodology for enhanced investor protection. Effective November 6, 2023, the Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC), affiliated with the Japan Exchange Group (JPX), has updated its margin calculation approach for JPX’s derivatives market. The transition […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The big industry news this morning is CQG announcing it has entered into an agreement for its senior management to buy the firm from founder Tim Mather. Details of the transaction, expected to be completed this month, were not disclosed. At FIA EXPO 2023, CQG […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff This is what leadership looks like, in this case the leadership is in the U.S. Treasury market. It involves the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed rules from March 28, 2022 to ‘Include Certain Significant Market Participants as “Dealers” or “Government Securities Dealers.”‘ DRW’s Don Wilson […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff TMX Group today announced the launch of two new order books in a new innovative Canadian trading platform. TMX says the platform was “designed to create an optimized trading environment to enhance execution quality.” The names of the order books are Alpha-X and Alpha DRK. […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The LA Times’ Michael Hiltzik wrote a column that paints a terrible picture of the crypto markets following the seven guilty verdicts against Sam Bankman-Fried last week. The title of the opinion piece is “Column: Sam Bankman-Fried’s seven guilty verdicts expose crypto as a swindle […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Sam Bankman-Fried has been convicted of fraud. The breadth of the coverage of this story reflects the interest in the man who was once the second-richest twentysomething in history. The headlines and publications include Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted of Fraud in Stunning FTX Crash from Bloomberg, […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff There is an intriguing story from Bloomberg this morning titled “Outside China, “‘Everything Apps’ Haven’t Worked. Why Would Musk’s?” Back when I was an electronic trading broker clearing Man Financial, I did not want to use MTrade, the inhouse offering from Man. Instead, I wanted […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff SEC Chairman Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) posted to Twitter/X yesterday about the anniversary of Satoshi Nakamoto posting his “famous white paper.” Here is what he wrote: If Satoshi Nakamoto went as Satoshi Nakamoto for Halloween, would we be able to tell? Happy 15th anniversary to […]
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