First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff CME Group suffered a more than 10-hour halt in trading across its core futures and options markets after a cooling-system failure at a CyrusOne data centre that houses its main electronic trading infrastructure near Chicago. Trading has now resumed on key platforms including Globex, BrokerTec […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The SEC has denied Chicago-based Dream Exchange‘s bid to register as a national securities exchange, citing confidential investigative findings about possible securities-law violations and media reports raising concerns about potential misuse of investor funds, although the firm is allowed to reapply in the future, The […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Cassandra Seier, the head of international capital markets at the New York Stock Exchange, passed away over the weekend, according to a company spokesperson who did not disclose the cause of death, Reuters reported. Seier joined the NYSE in 2022 after spending more than 23 […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff At FIA EXPO, FIA CEO Walt Lukken interviewed ICE Chairman & CEO Jeff Sprecher to discuss how the traditional “old guard vs. new markets” narrative no longer fits, given ICE’s record of innovation. Their conversation, offered in an FIA MarketVoice podcast, covered ICE’s roots as […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Former CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad has published a paper titled “The best way to regulate digital assets: Merge the SEC and CFTC” that argues that the most effective way to regulate digital assets is to merge the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Raphael Arndt, the chief executive of Australia’s Future Fund, warned that rising inequality is fueling increased populist policies and market interventions, adding to uncertainty and reshaping global market dynamics, Adam Haigh reported for Bloomberg. In response to geopolitical risks and changing trade patterns, the sovereign […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Prediction markets were the talk of the FIA EXPO, according to a story by Bloomberg reporters Katherine Doherty and Bernard Goyder. At the event, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour announced that prediction markets are growing so rapidly that they could rival traditional stock exchanges within just […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Here is how Walt Lukken actually started his comments yesterday: “-We have a great event in store for you! And for those in the audience tracking my remarks on Polymarket and Kalshi, let’s get this over with: Contango, Pat Kenny, 6-7, and Hoosiers.” Several years […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Today is the first day of FIA EXPO 2025 in Chicago at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk hotel. JLN is here to conduct our JLN Industry Leader video series, with Robby Lothian (USA) providing videography support. We are located just inside the main entrance towards […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Fanatics, the U.S. sports merchandising powerhouse led by Michael Rubin, is in talks with Crypto.com to potentially launch a joint prediction markets platform. This move would expand Fanatics’ reach into sports, politics, and pop culture event betting-a sector that has grown rapidly over the past […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will hold a nomination hearing for Michael Selig to be chairman and commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building at 3:00 p.m. More details are […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Kraken co-chief executive Arjun Sethi has criticized UK rules on digital asset promotion, arguing that Financial Conduct Authority requirements-such as risk warnings, step-intensive onboarding, and limits on investment incentives-have slowed down transactions and made it harder for retail investors to access the crypto market. In […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff In the book I am listening to on Amazon’s Audible, “My Friends,” by Fredrik Backman, one of the characters says, “Loyalty is a superpower.” I liked that line a lot, as I greatly value loyalty. Loyalty is one of the 12 points of the Scout […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Dr. Richard Sandor was interviewed by Adam Chilton, dean of the University of Chicago Law School, in a fireside chat, the first entry on the Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics YouTube channel. The terrific, in-depth interview covers not just Sandor’s recent book, co-authored with […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff William A. Galston, writing in The Wall Street Journal, warns that the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence is poised to disrupt white-collar jobs in a way that could trigger significant political upheaval, much as manufacturing job losses did in the 2000s. He notes that major […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The European Commission has launched a formal antitrust investigation into Deutsche Borse and Nasdaq over possible collusion in the listing, trading, and clearing of financial derivatives, following unannounced inspections last year, the Financial Times reported. Regulators suspect that the exchanges may have entered agreements not […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Tokenovate, a UK-based fintech specializing in post-trade automation and digital settlement, has launched the Novat Protocol, a programmable settlement layer for tokenized assets designed to unlock liquidity, reduce systemic risk, and enable real-time settlement in global capital markets. Powered by the FINOS Common Domain Model, […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff It is election day in the U.S., and the bomb threats on polling places in New Jersey have already begun. It is time to pull your big boy and big girl pants on and participate in democracy. New York City’s mayoral election has become a […]
Read articleFirst Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Many journalists and public relations professionals are epeolatrists, while others are logophiles. Some hold words as sacred, while others’ attachment is more playful or passionate. Prediction markets have tapped into the obsession with words by creating “mention markets,” a relatively small subset that pays off […]
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