| January 31, 2025 | | | | | Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
John Lothian News | |
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| | | | Lead Stories | | | Wall Street Fear Gauge Falls to End Wild Week
George Glover - Barron's
Investors were calming down Friday as a wild week for markets drew to a close. The Cboe Volatility Index, a Wall Street fear gauge that tracks S&P 500 options and trades under the ticker VIX, fell 3.6% to about 15 in early trading. Any reading under 20 is typically seen as a sign of relatively low volatility. The VIX's slide could reflect the fact that investors are getting over their worries about DeepSeek. The Chinese tech start-up's new artificial intelligence model sparked a brutal selloff Monday, but solid enough tech earnings have helped stocks to rebound since then.
/jlne.ws/416CeZb
Over $10B in Bitcoin and Ethereum Options Expired Today: What to Expect
Abdulkarim Abdulwahab - TheCryptoBasic
Today, over $10 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) options expired amid mixed bullish and bearish sentiment. This expiry is particularly notable given the backdrop of macroeconomic developments and ongoing political changes influencing market expectations. Breakdown of Expired $8.38B Bitcoin Options Today, 80,000 BTC options worth $8.38 billion expired with a Put-Call Ratio of 0.68. This expiration figure notably surpasses the 31,000 BTC expiry recorded last week following Donald Trump's crypto executive order.
/jlne.ws/4aIy3FK
Forex markets brace for Canada, Mexico swings as US tariff deadline looms
Alun John and Dhara Ranasinghe - Reuters
A deadline for U.S. tariff hikes on two of its top trading partners has global currency markets braced for increased volatility, FX options signal, with the Canadian dollar in the crosshairs. President Donald Trump set the Saturday deadline to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada in an effort to push them to halt illegal migrants and fentanyl from entering the U.S. Trump reiterated on Thursday that he would impose tariffs and that oil imports "may or may not" be excluded.
/jlne.ws/42E2xqM
BlockFills Collaborates with Coindesk Indices
Editorial Staff - Traders Magazine
BlockFills, a digital assets technology and trading firm for institutions and professional traders, has announced a collaboration with CoinDesk Indices to introduce the BlockFills CoinDesk 20 Options Market and bring professional liquidity to the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20). CoinDesk 20 measures the performance of leading digital assets and applies a capped market capitalization weighted methodology to ensure portfolio diversification. Trading on the BlockFills CoinDesk 20 Options Market began this month with the first transaction initiated by Hyperion Decimus, a digital asset manager and multi-strategy crypto hedge fund.
/jlne.ws/3WFvCxW
Options Market Recovers After Monday's Decline: Bybit & Block Scholes Analysis
FinanceFeeds Editorial Team
Bybit, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has published its latest crypto derivatives report. This comprehensive report is released weekly in collaboration with Blocks Scholes, providing valuable insights into the latest trends and data in the crypto derivatives market. This week's analysis highlights early-week market turbulence, coinciding with DeepSeek's LLM announcement and broader sell-offs across major indices and crypto markets. Despite the volatility, perpetual swaps open interest remained steady, with funding rates briefly dipping into negative territory before recovering. The options market saw increased trading volumes, even as forward-looking volatility expectations declined.
/jlne.ws/40TA6nc
| | | | | | Exchanges | | | Cboe Clear Europe to launch Securities Financing Transaction (SFT) clearing
Rick Steves - Finance Feeds
Cboe Clear Europe has released an overview of its 2024 performance, highlighting growth across cash equities, new venue connections, and increased derivatives clearing volumes. The clearing house has also detailed its 2025 strategy, which includes the launch of Securities Financing Transaction (SFT) clearing and expanded post-trade services. Cboe Clear Europe cleared 1.2 billion client trades in 2024, marking a 5% increase from the previous year. The company ended the year with a record 45.4% market share across interoperable venues, up from 41.6% in 2023. Growth in the Nordic region was particularly strong, with cleared volumes on Euronext Oslo rising 74% year-over-year.
/jlne.ws/4hi7eLg
Cboe Canada launches U.S. mid-cap index ETF amid concentration concerns
Rick Steves - Finance Feeds
Cboe Canada has listed a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) from Franklin Templeton Canada, expanding access to U.S. mid-cap equities for investors. The Franklin U.S. Mid Cap Multifactor Index ETF (FMID) is now available for trading under the symbol FMID. The ETF tracks the LibertyQ U.S. Mid Cap Equity Index, which applies a rules-based approach to select stocks based on quality, value, momentum, and low volatility.
/jlne.ws/4gn3sic
Changes to the Executive Board of Eurex Frankfurt AG; Quinten Koekenbier has been appointed as member of the Executive Board of Eurex Frankfurt AG.; Wolfgang Eholzer retired in December 2024 after almost 27 years with Deutsche Borse Group.
Eurex
Eurex Frankfurt AG announces changes to its Executive Board. As of 1 February 2025, Quinten Koekenbier will join the Executive Board of Eurex Frankfurt AG. He will replace Wolfgang Eholzer as Chief Technology Officer who retired at the end of 2024. Koekenbier will assume this position as part of his new role as Head of Derivatives & Cash Trading IT at Deutsche Borse which he will also start on 1 February.
/jlne.ws/4hz6uB4
| | | | | | Regulation & Enforcement | | | Binary options fraudsters ordered to pay US$450 million; U.S. district court issues default judgment in global scheme
James Langton - Investment Executive
The operators of a global binary options scheme that defrauded investors have been ordered to pay US$450 million in restitution and penalties by a U.S. district court. Back in 2019, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed suit against a collection of offshore, unregistered companies; WSB Investments Ltd. (BinaryBook), which was incorporated in the U.K. and other jurisdictions; and a handful of Israeli citizens, alleging that they breached U.S. derivatives rules and defrauded investors. The offshore, unregistered companies included Israel-based Yukom Communications Ltd., Linkopia Mauritius Ltd., Wirestech Ltd. and Zolarex Ltd., which were based in the Marshall Islands (and operated as BigOption and BinaryOnline, respectively).
/jlne.ws/42FNeO7
| | | | | | Strategy | | | Is the Options Market Predicting a Spike in New Gold (NGD) Stock?
Zacks Equity Research
Investors in New Gold Inc. NGD need to pay close attention to the stock based on moves in the options market lately. That is because the Feb. 21, 2025 $1 Put had some of the highest implied volatility of all equity options today.
/jlne.ws/4glS1r9
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| | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
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