 | August 16, 2021 | | | |  | Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
John Lothian News | |
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| | | | Observations & Insight | | | ****SC: Terry Patton, a former trader and Cboe member and founder of CannaTrac Technology, plans to draw a clear path between his past and present this afternoon when his company kicks off its "Rolling Tour" in Chicago's financial district, outside the Cboe and CBOT buildings. Patton says the idea of the 20+ city tour though Illinois and Missouri, complete with a company-branded tour bus, is to tout its CannaCard digital payment platform, an app that enables cash-free cannabis purchases. Having to rely on cash payments has been a long-running challenge for both cannabis retailers and buyers, one that the proposed Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2021 aims to help rectify. (The bill would prohibit federal banking regulators from penalizing depository institutions for providing banking services to legitimate cannabis-related businesses.) More information on CannaTrac can be found here.
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The Spread - August 13, 2021
JohnLothianNews.com
Volatility eases as summer draws to a close and earnings season ends; Treasury and Eurodollar options perk up on inflation worries; John Lothian delivers a tribute to the late Wayne Luthringshausen and talks market structure; Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing launches new options; Two economics professors take a poke at stock market bubbles; and tastytrade's Jermal Chandler talks about theta in the "Term of the Week."
Watch the video »
| | | | | | Lead Stories | | | Biden Said to Pick Behnam as Top U.S. Derivatives Regulator
Benjamin Bain and Robert Schmidt - Bloomberg
CFTC candidate has been acting head of agency since January; Behnam expected to focus on climate change issues as chair
President Joe Biden plans to name Rostin Behnam to lead the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees much of the $582 trillion global derivatives market including cryptocurrency trading, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
/bloom.bg/3xVaNPY
'Big Short' investor Michael Burry ramps up his bet against Tesla - and reveals a new wager against Cathie Wood's Ark Invest
Theron Mohamed - Markets Insider
Michael Burry has increased his wager against Elon Musk, and placed a new bet against Cathie Wood as well.
Burry's Scion Asset Management held bearish put options on nearly 1.1 million shares of Tesla, worth $731 million at the end of June - an increase from its puts on 800,000 shares three months earlier, regulatory filings show.
/bit.ly/3snHkgD
The age of the ETF is looming
Robin Wigglesworth - Financial Times
Like an ageing boxer who is still on top but starting to lose some of their pace and power, the mutual fund is slowly but surely being supplanted by a newer, brasher invention: the exchange traded fund.
Before dwelling on why, it is important to acknowledge what a phenomenal invention the open-ended mutual fund has been â arguably one of the greatest in financial history, whether ranked by success, longevity or social usefulness.
/on.ft.com/2VYp6GC
China's Slowdown: Looking Through Delta and the Flood
Nathaniel Taplin - WSJ
China's July economic data was expected to be bad, and it delivered on those low expectations: industrial output, retail sales and investment all slowed markedly.
Much of that weakness is almost certainly related to recent catastrophic flooding in Henan and the continuing Delta variant outbreak, which now appears to be slowly coming under control in the country. But not all of it is tied to temporary factors, and that means more economic policy support is probably imminent: Just don't expect it to be on last year's scale. To see why, look past the volatile headline figures to the things the government cares about most: jobs and financial stability.
/on.wsj.com/2VWNEzw
Funds sell oil as coronavirus infections rise
John Kemp - Reuters
Hedge funds sold petroleum last week for the sixth time in eight weeks as resurgent coronavirus infections in China, Europe and North America dampened hopes of a rapid resumption in long-distance passenger aviation.
/reut.rs/37PA8jE
Why Only a Huge Shock Will Deter Risk-Taking Investors
Mohamed A. El-Erian - Bloomberg
When I began to work directly in financial markets in 1998, after 15 years at the International Monetary Fund, I remember being particularly struck by the conviction my new colleagues had in two often-repeated mantras: "Never fight the Fed" and "the trend is your friend."
Such deep-rooted conviction not only informed their views but also influenced their trading and longer-term portfolio positioning. That conviction has not diminished in any way since then. Indeed, it is strongly in play now and has given birth to three other mantras that now roll off the lips of market participants just as easily as the other two.
/bloom.bg/2W0uzMR
| | | | | | Exchanges | | | Cboe Vest Launches the First Bitcoin Strategy Mutual Fund with Managed Volatility
Markets Insider
Cboe Vest Financial LLC ("Cboe Vest", "the Firm"), the inventor of Target Outcome Investments , has launched the Cboe Vest Bitcoin Strategy Managed Volatility Fund (the "Fund"), a first-of-its-kind mutual fund providing access to Bitcoin returns, while seeking to manage volatility to reduce the impact of severe sustained declines.
Whether as an inflation hedge, alternative store of value, diversifier, or for speculative purposes, there is strong demand for Bitcoin investment products. Prices have soared since its introduction in 2008. However, the ride has been turbulent. Bitcoin has been significantly more volatile, sometimes as high as 5 times more volatile relative to the U.S. stock market. Its volatility has exposed investors to sizeable losses in the past.
/bit.ly/3iQBVvj
| | | | | | Miscellaneous | | | What the Afghan government's collapse might mean for the U.S. stock market
Mark DeCambre - MarketWatch
After 20 years in the shadows, the Taliban have returned to power in Afghanistan, raising questions about stability in the Middle East and stoking some potential unrest in U.S. financial markets, amid a weekend that was rife with political developments.
/on.mktw.net/3yRkj80
Innovation Wave in US Equity Market Structure
Shanny Basar - Traders Magazine
Nasdaq acquiring a stake in LeveL ATS indicates that a new wave of innovation in the US equity market structure is occurring according to Brad Bailey, research director in the capital markets division of consultancy Celent.
At the start of August Nasdaq announced it was buying a significant minority stake in LeveL ATS, an independent US equity dark pool trading venue which launched in 2006. Nasdaq joins Bank of America, Citi, and Fidelity as owners.
/bit.ly/3CS76y5
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