| March 08, 2019 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
JLN Staff
Anyone who is familiar with Green Key Technologies knows how cool the tech is and how challenging it is to take voice brokering into the digital and AI world. They just got a new round of funding from IPC. Anthony Tassone is once again GreenKey's CEO.~JK
Happy International Women's Day. The Economist has published its "glass-ceiling index," which indicates that "progress for women at work has stalled," the magazine says. There is good news and bad news: more women on company boards, but not in management; higher share of women in the labor force (64%), but still 16 percentage points below the male average. Once again Sweden is ranked No. 1 best environment for working women. ~SR
Elise Fleischaker of TT has a new post on the Trade Talk Blog titled "Celebrating International Women's Day with TT Women in Tech."~JJL
WILD (Women In Listed Derivatives) London is holding an event on how to be a manager on Wednesday March 20 at 6pm at the London Metal Exchange, 10 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1AJ. The guest speaker is Lizzie Thomas from Dale Carnegie. It is £10 for WILD members and £15 for non-members. You can RSVP by Friday March 15th to wilderivativeslondon@gmail.com, or register through their web site. ~SR
Scott Fleming of Jump Trading has long been a very dedicated Scout leader. His latest adventure is as a Committee Chair of a new girl Troop of Scouts BSA in the northern suburbs of Chicago. His new Troop has 11 girls and counting.~JJL
Fidelity Investments announced yesterday that their bitcoin (BTC) custody service is now live, but only for a select few eligible clients. You can read their Twitter announcement HERE.~MR
In honor of International Women's Day, Binance posted an article on their blog entitled, "Satoshi is Female: Dispelling 5 Common Myths in Crypto." One example from the article is that in 2016, researchers found that women outperform men in terms of how much code gets approved on the software repository Github.~MR
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U.S. Options Industry Creates New Lifetime Contribution Award and "Crowd of Fame"
OCC
OCC, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced the creation of the U.S. Options Lifetime Contribution Award. The award was created by the U.S. options exchanges and the Options Industry Council (OIC), an industry resource managed by OCC.
bit.ly/2TA8Kko
**** Great idea.~JJL
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The Spread - Wild West - 3/8
JohnLothianNews.com
A judge's comparison of FX options trading to the Wild West, MIAX's news-making tear, and a little bit of Simon and Garfunkel await viewers of this week's episode of "The Spread."
Watch the video and see the stories referenced here »
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China's $345 Billion Stock Rout Shows Beijing's Fear of Bubbles
Sofia Horta e Costa - Bloomberg
Shanghai Composite sinks 4.4%, ends eight-week winning streak; World-beating rally had fueled concerns about overheating
It started with a single sell rating on one stock. By the time China's exchanges shut on Friday, equity investors were sitting on $345 billion of losses and the realization that Beijing is in no mood for another bubble.
/jlne.ws/2VF591y
***** Bubbles the clown?~JJL
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BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Says Modern Monetary Theory Is 'Garbage'
Peggy Collins - Bloomberg
Deficits may drive interest rates to an 'unsustainable level'; Economists from Summers to Krugman have denounced MMT
BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said he's not a proponent of modern monetary theory. "That's garbage," Fink said in an interview with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television Thursday. "I'm a big believer that deficits do matter. I'm a big believer that deficits are going to be driving interest rates much higher and it could drive them to an unsustainable level. "
/jlne.ws/2VHlG5b
***** MMT sounds like WWF.~JJL
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CryptoMarketsWiki Coin of the Week: Binance Coin
The Ministry of Production and Labour in Argentina announced Wednesday that, for every Argentinian blockchain project that receives funding from Binance Labs, the Ministry will match investments of up to $50,000 through LatamEX Founders Lab, its blockchain incubator program. This caused a significant increase to Binance Coin (BNB) in price and pushed it to become the 7th largest by market cap, according to CoinMarketCap, surpassing Tether (USDT).
/bit.ly/2SCelCp
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Thursday's Top Three
Our top story of the day on Thursday was about THEM, robots who are coming for bonds and currencies in Bloomberg's To Coax Bond Traders Into Robotic Era, Banks Tap Stocks Veterans. Second was about HIM - Gerald Cotton - in Markets Insider's Experts finally tracked down the digital wallets of the crypto CEO who died with sole access to millions. They say the money's gone. And our third story is about about IT, as in MarketAxess has the "it factor," in the New York Post piece MarketAxess plans to aggressively look for new acquisitions
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MarketsWiki Stats
146,171,144 pages viewed; 23,468 pages; 217,325 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics
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| Lead Stories | U.S. SEC scrutinizes fairness of stock exchange pricing
John McCrank - Reuters
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether the multi-tiered pricing system used by stock exchanges favors large brokers at the expense of small ones, according to a person familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/2TE9rJe
Isda's whack-a-mole fixes for credit default swaps merit scrutiny; Trade body's remedies akin to patching software after hackers expose weaknesses
Robert Smith - FT
Credit default swaps have a serious image problem. The reputation of these derivatives  akin to insurance contracts, protecting investors against the risk that a company does not repay its debts  was badly tarnished a decade ago when they were widely blamed for fuelling the US subprime mortgage bubble, along with several other infamous three-letter sets of initials.
/on.ft.com/2VNHyvX
Bond platform Tradeweb joins IPOs rush; Flotation should provide a windfall for the banks that own stakes
Philip Stafford and Nicole Bullock i- FT
Tradeweb Markets, the US fixed-income and derivatives trading venue, is set to go public this year, providing a windfall for its investment bank backers and fuelling what is expected to be a bumper year of market debuts in the US.
/on.ft.com/2VN1tv4
China's Plunge Sends Asia Stocks to Biggest Loss This Year
Natalie Lung and Eric Lam - Bloomberg
Benchmark MSCI Asia Pacific Index posts a second weekly drop; Chinese stocks led declines on rare sell rating for an A share
Stock markets across Asia sank as concerns surrounding global growth mounted, with the region's benchmark index set for its biggest plunge of the year. Chinese shares plunged the most as traders took a sell rating from the nation's largest brokerage as a sign that the government wants to slow down the rally.
/jlne.ws/2VLkYDU
The Complete Case Study on Spot Trading
Paul Rowady - Alphacution Research Conservatory
In this 32-page, 38-exhibit case study on the proprietary option trading firm, Spot Trading, that closed in late 2017, Alphacution showcases the information and insights that can be harvested from a cache of data that is hiding in plain sight. This report is also intended to educate clients and our broader network about the mechanics and drivers of macro-market structure, as well as to provide a template that will begin to set expectations for the nature of premium content that is being made available as part of Alphacution's emerging research subscription service.
/jlne.ws/2TxJ1Jg
Tradeweb Paid Top Two Executives $38 Million in 2018 Pre-IPO
Matthew Leising and Anders Melin - Bloomberg
CEO and president got stock options tied to revenue, Ebitda; Bond-trading platform likely to have $5 billion-plus value
Tradeweb Markets Inc., the Refinitiv unit co-owned by Blackstone Group LP and Thomson Reuters Corp. that's preparing to go public, awarded its top two executives a combined $38.3 million in 2018.
/jlne.ws/2TxeRWG
Wall Street reacts to a dressed-down Goldman Sachs; With the business world in flux, the bank has ditched its requirement for formal attire
Robert Armstrong - FT
When a memo went out to Goldman Sachs staff last week, informing them that formal business attire would no longer be an everyday requirement, chief executive David Solomon was wearing a suit and tie.
/on.ft.com/2J9iFcK
Do clothes make the Goldman banker?; Another reason not to work on Wall Street
Henry Mance - FT
Occasionally, I look at my payslip and wonder why I don't work at Goldman Sachs. Then I look at the news, and remember that there are so many good reasons. This week's revelation is that Goldman  the famously uptight Wall Street bastion  will allow staff to wear casual clothes sometimes. Or as the bank's leadership put it: "we believe this is the right time to move to a firmwide flexible dress code".
/jlne.ws/2VJM9Pw
Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank Merger Talks Intensify
Steven Arons - Bloomberg
Informal discussions picking up amid government pressure; Deutsche Bank CEO is said to have given up resistance to deal
Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG are intensifying discussions about a potential merger as their turnaround efforts sputter and after the German government put pressure on the firms, according to a person familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/2VHe42E
Goldman Says 'Public Discourse' Gets It Wrong About Buybacks
Joanna Ossinger - Bloomberg
Incentive compensation doesn't drive repurchases, Kostin says; U.S. politicians have been criticizing the practice as unfair
Buybacks have gotten an unfairly bad name in the U.S., according to a defense of the practice by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
/jlne.ws/2VNOFEH
Norway Gives $1 Trillion Wealth Fund Approval to Dump Some Oil Stocks
Mikael Holter - Bloomberg
Fund held $7.5 billion in companies slated for divestment; Norway spares the biggest oil companies in fund divestments
Norway took a half step toward divesting oil and gas stocks in its massive $1 trillion wealth fund, approving the sale of pure exploration companies while sparing the biggest integrated producers.
/jlne.ws/2VKaaWO
6 Reforms For Greater Market Resilience
Law360
The U.S. economy came out of the most recent government shutdown with a full IPO calendar and a heady jobs report. But don't open the bubbly just yet. The U.S. narrowly avoided government shutdown 2.0 (for now) and still has a deeply divided Congress. We must expect continued partisan squabbles at every turn, and little progress on important agenda items such as infrastructure, trade and health care.
bit.ly/2TCbayF
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | SGX eyes ferrous scrap derivatives launch: exec
Diana Kinch - S&P Global Platts
Singapore Exchange (SGX), a hub for iron ore derivatives trading, is eyeing the possibility of launching a steel scrap derivatives contract in recognition of the growing importance of the scrap and recycling market, Will Chin, the exchange's head of commodities, said Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/2TAnmQt
The World Federation Of Exchanges & Five Partner Organisations Bring Together 80 Exchanges To 'Ring The Bell For Gender Equality'
WFE
The World Federation of Exchanges ("WFE"), the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs, is pleased to confirm that its member exchanges are taking part in the fifth annual 'Ring the Bell for Gender Equality' initiative.
bit.ly/2NPXeMn
HKEX Rings The Bell For Gender Equality
Mondovisione
In celebration of the International Women's Day, HKEX's employee-initiated organisation Women's Exchange and industry association Women in ETFs hosted a market opening ceremony this afternoon, as part of the "Ring the Bell for Gender Equality" event held by exchanges worldwide. In her welcome address, HKEX Chairman Laura M Cha encouraged companies and industry leaders to continue supporting gender equality and diversity in the workplace and in society.
bit.ly/2IXYheh
SGX reports market statistics for February 2019
SGX
Securities daily average value rises to six-month high, with higher trading activity in IT and real estate sectors; All-time record for Derivatives volume with 1.11 million lots daily
bit.ly/2VKSGd2
Welcome Address by SGX CEO Loh Boon Chye at SGX London Forum on 7 March 2019
SGX
Asian Multi-Asset Opportunities and Challenges - The Way Forward
bit.ly/2VN910J
JPX Monthly Headlines - February 2019
JPX
JPX group companies undertake various initiatives and disseminate information with the aim of providing the most attractive markets to all users; Every month, we showcase the highlights of these efforts in short and concise summaries just for you.
bit.ly/2VJWmeQ
Intercontinental Exchange Announces Record Trading in TTF Natural Gas and JKM LNG (Platts) Contracts
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of data and listings services, today announced record trading in February in the TTF Natural Gas and JKM LNG (Platts) contracts.
bit.ly/2VHzRHu
Intercontinental Exchange Announces Successful First Auction for Permian WTI Crude Oil Storage Futures Deliverable at Magellan East Houston Terminal
ICE Press Release
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of data and listings services, today announced the completion of the first auction for the ICE Permian WTI Crude Oil Storage Futures (HOS), deliverable at Magellan Midstream Partners (MMP), L.P.'s (NYSE: MMP) terminal in East Houston, Texas.
/goo.gl/CC3TQg
Passive Liquidity Protection: pilot phase and setup information
Eurex
With this circular, we would like to inform you about the upcoming pilot phase of the Passive Liquidity Protection (PLP) which will start on 3 June 2019.
bit.ly/2VJQSAT
Eurex Clearing: CCP 16.5 - Introduction of T2S settlement for selected NCSC instruments
Eurex
With the introduction of T2S processing for Clearstream (CBF) in the course of the T2S wave 3 migration, Eurex Clearing has aligned its internal processing to the T2S continuous settlement.
bit.ly/2VMbsAK
Erik Müller: "An additional 50 to 100 buy side clients"; The CEO on euro clearing and market segmentation
Eurex
Mr. Müller, will you achieve the targeted market share of 25% between now and 2020 in the clearing of euro-denominated interest rate derivatives?
bit.ly/2VHwjVG
Prisma: Time-to-Expiry Adjustment relevant for quarterly expiry for the first time in March 2019
Eurex
With Eurex Clearing Prisma Release 8.0, in December 2018, the functionality of the Time-to-Expiry Adjustment was rolled out and taken live in January 2019.
bit.ly/2VKOoCs
Euronext announces annual review results of the ISEQ® Family
Euronext
Euronext today announced the results of the annual review for the ISEQ® family indices. The review did not give rise to any changes, as detailed below.
bit.ly/2VFmtU8
Euronext announces annual review results of the PSI 20
Euronext
Euronext today announced the annual review of the PSI 20®. The changes due to the review will be effective from Monday, March 18.
bit.ly/2VJ4rAD
Euronext announces Quarterly Review Results of the CAC Family Indices
Euronext
Euronext today announced the results of the quarterly review for the CAC family indices. The changes due to the review will be effective from Monday 18 March 2019.
bit.ly/2VEfE5s
Nodal Exchange, FreightWaves And DAT® To Launch The World's First Trucking Freight Futures Contracts
Mondovisione
Nodal Exchange, in partnership with FreightWaves, the leading provider of freight market news, data and analytics, and DAT, the largest spot freight marketplace in North America, announced the launch date of the world's first financially settled Trucking Freight Futures contracts planned for March 29, 2019.
bit.ly/2TB4QaL
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Regulators warn Congress not to pre-empt state fintech rules
Clyde McGrady - Roll Call
State securities regulators are concerned Congress could pre-empt state laws governing financial technology such as blockchain and cryptocurrency that are designed to protect consumers.
The North American Securities Administrators Association on Wednesday issued its legislative priorities for the 116th Congress, calling on lawmakers to be cautious when implementing fintech laws.
bit.ly/2EVvTFD
TradingScreen expands to Canada with new Montréal development centre
John Brazier - The Trade
Order and execution management systems provider TradingScreen has expanded its global presence through the establishment of a new development centre in Canada.
/jlne.ws/2Tt2QBB
TradingScreen To Relaunch Basket Trading
MarketsMedia
TradingScreen will relaunch its basket trading functionality in the first half of this year. Last month the order and execution management system partnered with BIDS Trading to give clients more access to block trading, which has become more important since MiFID II went live.
bit.ly/2J9klCG
When is a personal loan better than a credit card? Â Quartz
John Detrixhe - Quartz
Startups have spent the past decade trying to reinvent everything from taxis (so far so good) to squeezing juice out of fruit and vegetables (facepalm). Lately, entrepreneurs have been giving consumer debt a digital makeover.
Fintech upstarts have turbocharged personal loans, now the fastest growing category of consumer debt, according to Experian. This type of lending was once mainly used by riskier borrowers without access to credit cards or home-equity loans. Now, whizzy smartphone apps, using a wider range of of data inputs, can extend loans to people who might not qualify based on traditional credit scores alone.
bit.ly/2EVwTtn
Chinese bankers say lack of fintech investments is a 'major drag' on competitiveness
Georgina Lee - South China Morning Post
Chinese bankers' concerns about falling behind on fintech investment are at a three-year high, as they consider their existing information technology system to be "a major drag" on business.
Results from the Chinese Bankers' Survey 2018, jointly conducted by consultancy PwC and the China Banking Association, found that about 38 per cent of the bankers viewed the current IT systems at their banks could "barely satisfy" ongoing business operations and see it weighing on their operations. This has risen from 30.4 per cent in 2016 and 34.1 per cent in 2017.
bit.ly/2EYiqgt
Europe's dance of fintech hubs - FinTech Futures
Fabian Vandenreydt - FinTech Futures
In 2018, the European fintech landscape took big steps forward and even though fewer deals were made, they substantially increased in value, according to KPMG's "Pulse of Fintech" report.
However, to compete with its American and Chinese counterparts, further collaboration is needed in order to accelerate the growth of fintech innovation in Europe.
bit.ly/2EVDGTQ
Banco do Brasil London Branch Deploys CloudMargin Platform for Global Collateral Processing; Brazilian Bank Branch Improves Control and Efficiency in Managing OTC FX Transactions
CloudMargin
CloudMargin, creator of the world's first and only collateral and margin management solution native to the cloud, today announced that Banco do Brasil in London, a branch of one of Latin America's largest banks, has deployed the CloudMargin platform for its global collateral processing. The branch is now fully onboarded to CloudMargin, using the platform to process collateral for its over-the-counter (OTC) foreign exchange (FX) transactions, including FX forwards and cross-currency swaps.
bit.ly/2TB3NHR
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Ex-Bitmain Bitcoin Cash Staffers Form Startup to Lend and Trade Crypto
Wolfie Zhao - Coindesk
Former employees of cryptocurrency mining and manufacturing giant Bitmain who focused on bitcoin cash development are planning a new startup that will offer crypto financing-related services, CoinDesk has learned. According to two sources with knowledge of the matter, the former employees include those from the mining giant's Copernicus project that was impacted by a company-wide layoff last year. The sources said the former Bitmain team members are planning to launch a new firm that will provide services such as cryptocurrency custody, over-the-counter (OTC) trading and crypto lending.
/jlne.ws/2UrjGxF
Blockchain specialist SETL calls in administrators amid corporate restructuring; Administrators from Quantuma to oversee restructuring of SETL, separating investments from software development business.
John Brazier - The Trade
Blockchain and settlement payments technology firm SETL has appointed administrators to handle a restructuring of the business.
bit.ly/2VJ3hoL
Cryptoassets lure 'get rich quick' investors, says regulator; Many 'overestimate their knowledge' and consider them a shortcut to easy money
Kate Beioley - FT
Investors buy cryptoassets such as bitcoin in order to "get rich quick", tend to "overestimate their knowledge" and often invest without "much, or any, research", according to a survey by the UK financial regulator on the use of cryptoassets.
/jlne.ws/2VHkU8h
Expedia: A Cautionary Tale For Cryptocurrency In Travel
Luke Fitzpatrick - Forbes
Expedia started accepting bitcoin for hotel payments in 2014, and for a long time they were a prime example of mainstream cryptocurrency usage. Unfortunately, this story came to a sad ending when the company decided to stop accepting bitcoin in the summer of 2018. With that being said, there are some interesting things that the blockchain community can learn from the reasons why Expedia started using bitcoin in the first place, and why they ended up canning it to return to fiat-only.
/bit.ly/2XJLPCh
Ethereum Block Count Spikes as Difficulty Bomb Diffuses on Schedule
Christine Kim - Coindesk
The rate at which new transaction blocks are being added to the ethereum blockchain is back on the rise after the network's successful upgrades, Constantinople and St. Petersburg, last week. According to blockchain analytics site Etherscan, the daily block count increased more than 1,500 blocks within a 24-hour period after the upgrades, implemented as hard forks, were accepted onto the main network.
/bit.ly/2CannAG
Here's what BitGo's CEO expects of Goldman Sachs' and Fidelity's crypto custody plans
Isabel Woodford and Frank Chaparro - The Block Crypto
Crypto custodian shop BitGo has dominated the space for the last several years; a big fish in a small pond. With $70 million in venture financing with heavyweights like Galaxy and Goldman backing it, there seems to be little that can stop its momentum. Except, of course, the natural rules of economics; namely, the rise of competitors looking to steal a slice of the pie. BitGo wants to build a 'virtual order book' to radically transform crypto's market structure
bit.ly/2J0ztCF
Blockchain, Yesterday's Hype, Transitions Into Something Else
Irving Wladawsky-Berger - The Wall Street Journal (blog)
Blockchain was created around a decade ago as the public, distributed ledger for the bitcoin cryptocurrency. Most everyone agrees that it's a truly brilliant architecture, built on decades-old fundamental research in cryptography, distributed data, distributed computing, game theory and other advanced technologies. When it first came to light, blockchain had no broader goals beyond supporting bitcoin. But, as was the case with the Internet and World Wide Web, blockchain soon transcended its original objectives.
/on.wsj.com/2EXxxqt
North Korea Hacking Crypto Exchanges to Circumvent Sanctions: UN Panel
Yogita Khatri - Coindesk
North Korea has been carrying out major cryptocurrency hacks to bypass economic sanctions, according to a United Nations (U.N.) Security Council expert panel report. Nikkei Asian Review, which has obtained the report, reported Friday that this is the first time the panel has detailed North Korea's illicit cryptocurrency activities. The country has had severe economic sanctions imposed over its nuclear and missile programs, which have impacted its exports of coal and thus its foreign exchange earnings, according to Nikkei.
/bit.ly/2VKm7Mb
Binance Coin (BNB) Price Analysis: What Pushed The Crypto Exchange's Token to Number 7
Bitcoin Exchange Guide
$3874 is Bitcoin's current value. Its 24 hour trading volume is 9.36 billion. Our $BTC analysis is unchanged since Tuesday's update. Volume and price action both indicate strength from the bulls, and we expect a retest of the low 4k resistance in the coming days. Binance coin has been commanding the attention of the crypto world since the beginning of February. In about one month, its price has appreciated by more than 150% against the dollar. Volume has continued to flow into BNB since the beginning of 2019. The euphoria phase seems to have set in for $BNB.
/bit.ly/2TFyATS
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Wall Street Votes to Support Single Bond for Fannie, Freddie; Obama, Trump administrations pushed for overhaul of market for Fannie, Freddie bonds
Andrew Ackerman and Ben Eisen - WSJ
The world's second-largest bond market moved a step closer to its much-anticipated overhaul on Thursday when Wall Street firms voted to support a single mortgage-backed bond for Fannie Mae FNMA -0.73% and Freddie Mac . FMCC -1.51%
/on.wsj.com/2VNXJJJ
Tariff Man Has Become Deficit Man; Trump really has no idea how international trade works.
Paul Krugman - NY Times
Republicans hate deficits. Or at least that's what they claim. Republicans in Congress spent the entire Obama administration inveighing against budget deficits, warning incessantly that we were going to have a Greek-style fiscal crisis any day now. Donald Trump, on the other hand, focused his ire mainly on trade deficits, insisting that "our jobs and wealth are being given to other countries that have taken advantage of us."
/jlne.ws/2VQnTvt
Trump inauguration took money from shell companies tied to foreigners; Creators of firms that donated revealed by Guardian as Indian financier, lobbyist with links to Taiwan and Israeli real estate developer
Jon Swaine - The Guardian
Donald Trump's inauguration received tens of thousands of dollars from shell companies that masked the involvement of a foreign contributor or others with foreign ties.
bit.ly/2J9qjn4
House Democrats poised to endorse public financing of congressional campaigns
Mike DeBonis - The Washington Post
House Democrats are poised to endorse an expansive system to publicly finance congressional campaigns, a forceful statement against the influence of wealthy donors in politics. The plan to funnel billions of dollars in public funds to candidates each election cycle is at the core of a sweeping ethics and elections bill, H.R. 1, that Democrats plan to pass Friday. The legislation also calls for making Election Day a national holiday, requiring presidential candidates to release 10 years of their tax returns, and automatic voter registration.
/wapo.st/2TwX8i5
How Stacey Abrams Is Transforming Southern Politics
Britt Julious - Rolling Stone
After Election Day, Stacey Abrams briefly considered moving far away from Atlanta. "There was probably a 24-hour period, maybe 48 hours, where I was ready to move to a small island and become a writer full-time," she says. As the author of eight romance novels, Abrams could have done just that. She claims to be "an introvert by nature," though you wouldn't know it from all the hands she held and homes she visited during her historic run  and disputed loss  for the Georgia governorship last year.
/bit.ly/2J06VJq
Facebook bans a network of fake accounts that were trying to influence UK politics
Rob Price - Business Insider
Facebook has taken down a network of fake accounts that were attempting to influence British political debate. On Thursday, the Silicon Valley social networking giant announced it had detected a group of 137 accounts, pages, and groups across Facebook and Instagram that "[engaged] in coordinated inauthentic behavior as part of a domestic-focused network in the UK," and that were followed by 175,000 people.
/read.bi/2SRFf9h
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | For more regulatory, visit MarketsReformWiki, our website focused on current market reform efforts. | Japan's Financial Services Agency: Publication Of The List Of Links To English Translations Of Annual Securities Reports(ASRs)
Mondovisione
The "Working Group on Corporate Disclosure" of the Financial System Council has compiled and published the "Report - Realizing a Virtuous Cycle in the Capital Market". This report proposed that "To encourage companies to translate the Annual Securities Report into English, a list of companies that post the English version of their Annual Securities Report on the website could be published on the Financial Services Agency website".
bit.ly/2J00AO8
FCA FIRDS open for firms to test publication from 14 March 2019
UK FCA
We have built FCA FIRDS (Financial Instruments Reference Data System) to replace ESMA FIRDS in the UK.
bit.ly/2VFzrkM
FCA introduces final rules on the Directory of financial services workers
UK FCA
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today announced the final rules on the Directory - a new public register that enables consumers, firms and other stakeholders to find information on key individuals working in financial services.
bit.ly/2VL0Py8
FCA confirms increase in Financial Ombudsman Service award limit
UK FCA
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today confirmed that the Financial Ombudsman Service will soon be able to require financial services firms to pay significantly more compensation to consumers and businesses.
bit.ly/2JdxYkH
Registration Open for AgCon2019; CFTC and KSU Team Up Again on Agricultural Futures
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Center for Risk Management Education and Research (CRMER) at Kansas State University announced today that registration for AgCon2019 is open. This is the second Agricultural Commodity Futures Conference scheduled for April 11-12, 2019 in Overland Park, Kansas.
bit.ly/2VKCgkB
ESMA publishes responses to its Consultations on CSDR Guidelines
08 March 2019
ESMA
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published the responses received to its Consultations on CSDR Guidelines.
bit.ly/2VNqcPU
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Ex-Euronext CFO Joins XTX Markets as Chairman
David Kimberley - Finance Magnates
Liquidity provider XTX Markets announced two appointments to its Paris office this Thursday.
Geoffrey Damien has been appointed as Managing Director and Head of France at the firm and Serge Harry has joined as Chairman of XTX Markets SAS.
/jlne.ws/2TxREDH
What Happens After You Win?
Michael Batnick - The Irrelevant Investor
When I'm in a casino I tend to do two things: I bet conservatively when I'm winning. I bet aggressively when I'm losing.
This is not consistent with rational behavior, but evidently I'm not alone. This affliction runs rampant in our species.
/jlne.ws/2TvqFIU
Investment Association adds Standard Life Aberdeen, JP Morgan AM and AXA IM executives to board; Keith Skeoch, Patrick Thompson and Philippe d'Orgeval join Investment Association board of directors.
John Brazier - The Trade
The UK's Investment Association (IA) has announced three new members of the board of directors. Keith Skeoch, co-chief executive of Standard Life Aberdeen, Patrick Thomson, chief executive for EMEA and international head of institutional clients at JP Morgan Asset Management, and Philippe d'Orgeval, head of AXA Investment Management in the UK, have all joined the IA board.
bit.ly/2VQIIqD
What women can teach us about investing; The investment landscape is changing and women are leading the way
Emilie Bellet - FT
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old schoolgirl superstar of the climate change movement, took a 32-hour train ride from Sweden to the World Economic Forum last month to meet  and grill  the Davos elite.
/on.ft.com/2VM31oL
Oil price volatility weighs heavily on energy investors; Understanding the effect on producers and end users is vital
Jamie Webster - FT
Concerns about oil market volatility and its impact on companies and consumers are part of a narrative stretching back long before the rise of the "lower for longer" era for crude prices.
/on.ft.com/2VLYOSi
Navigating Cautiously
Governor Lael Brainard - Federal Reserve
At the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance and the Bendheim Center for Finance, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
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Why It's So Hard to Buy the Market at the Bottom and Hang On; A decade on from the stock market's financial crisis lows, investors should imagine: If they had bought at the bottom, what would they have done next?
James Mackintosh - WSJ
True contrarians only buy stocks when it makes them feel physically sick. This week is exactly 10 years since the vomit-inducing moment when the S&P 500 hit an intraday low of 666 (rounding down), Citigroup became a penny stock and General Motors was considering bankruptcy.
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FTSE Russell Announces 2019 Russell US Indexes Reconstitution Schedule
John D'Antona Jr. - Traders Magazine Online News, March 7, 2019
FTSE Russell announced the 2019 schedule for the annual reconstitution of its Russell US Indexes.
The Russell annual index rebalance process, closely watched by market participants, is designed to capture and reflect market shifts from the past year to ensure the Russell US indexes continue to accurately reflect the US equity market. The final day of Russell Reconstitution, on June 28 this year, is typically one of the highest trading volume days of the year on the US equity markets.
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Ex-Credit Suisse Bankers Fight Extradition Over Hidden Debt
Jonathan Browning - Bloomberg
Three former Credit Suisse Group AG bankers charged by the U.S. with helping to arrange more than $1.4 billion of hidden loans to Mozambique will fight extradition from the U.K.
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The curious reclassification of Brevan Howard's AI-driven trading team
Sarah Butcher - eFinancialCareers
Hedge fund Brevan Howard has been in the news for the wrong reasons this week. In what has been a difficult period for global macro funds, the Brevan Howard AH Master Fund - overseen by Alan Howard himself - has slumped 8.5% in two months. But while the world wonders how Howard will redeem himself, something curious has been going on behind the scenes.
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SEI Expands Relationship with BMO Financial Group
PRNewswire
SEI today announced the expansion of its existing asset management relationship with BMO Financial Group (BMO) into the Asian market. To enable distribution to accredited Asian investors, SEI has registered 25 of its Dublin UCITS funds in Singapore. Last month, BMO launched a new solution comprised of four risk-profiled Global Strategic Portfolios (SPs) managed by SEI. These SPs provide multiple levels of active management and diversification across six core asset classes: equity, fixed income, inflation sensitive, liquidity, absolute return and income. This news was previously announced on SEI's fourth-quarter 2018 earnings call.
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Bill Gross: 'We were looking for every penny we could get'; The 'bond king' on blackjack, building an investment powerhouse  and his Asperger's diagnosis
Robin Wigglesworth - FT
Bill Gross has not enjoyed the kind of career twilight for which a celebrated billionaire might hope. In fact, it has been downright miserable.
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RBC poaches BNY Mellon markets chief to lead FICC in the US; Highly regarde
Goldman, JPMorgan Eased Up on Early Intern Recruiting. Others Haven't.; Most competitors are planning to hire students this spring for summer 2020 internships, which could set the two investment banks back in the scramble for junior employees
Liz Hoffman - WSJ
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS -1.01% and JPMorgan Chase JPM -0.72% & Co. said last fall they would ease up on the intern-recruiting madness. But rivals haven't followed, which could set the two investment banks back in the competitive scramble for junior employees.
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d market structure expert to join RBC from BNY Mellon.
Jonathan Watkins - The Trade
BNY Mellon's chief executive officer of their markets unit is set to take up a new role as head of US fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) at Royal Bank of Canada, The TRADE has learnt.
bit.ly/2VEyDN8
Hedge Fund Tosses Family That Controls Maker of OxyContin; ove by Hildene Capital Management comes as legal and financial pressures increase on multibillion-dollar Sackler family
Juliet Chung, Sara Randazzo and Gregory Zuckerman - WSJ
The billionaire family that controls OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, already facing mounting legal and financial pressure, has been tossed out of a large hedge fund for its alleged role in fueling the opioid crisis.
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Goldman Sachs Looks to Reinvent Technology ETFs as Themed Funds
Rachel Evans and Sarah Ponczek - Bloomberg
Strategies include the new-age consumer and human evolution; Such products can charge a premium as fees fall toward zero
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. wants to revolutionize tech investment with a clutch of new exchange-traded funds.
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Browder Says Europe May Be Looking at $1 Trillion in Dirty Money
Frances Schwartzkopff and Niklas Magnusson - Bloomberg
Hermitage co-founder files criminal complaint against Swedbank; Laundering allegations now implicate many more European banks
Bill Browder, the investor who's made a career of chasing money launderers, says the cases he's brought against banks so far only represent a tiny fraction of the full amount in dirty money trying to get out of Russia and into the West.
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Goldman Sachs further shrinks commodities trading
Dmitry Zhdannikov, Sinead Cruise - Reuters
Goldman Sachs Group Inc , once one of the most active banks in commodities trading, has cut 10 roles to further downsize its global commodities trading division amid rising costs and shrinking profits.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | China Experiences a Fracking Boom, and All the Problems That Go With It
Steven Lee Myers - NY Times
The first earthquake struck this small farming village in Sichuan Province before dawn on Feb. 24. There were two more the next day.
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Eurozone banks buy sovereign bonds, reviving 'doom loop' fear; Banks' purchases of domestic debt revive as ECB launches fresh injection of cheap lending
Kate Allen - FT
Banks across the eurozone have begun to stock up on their own governments' bonds for the first time since the bloc's debt crisis half a decade ago  even as the European Central Bank launches a fresh round of stimulus to prod them into lending.
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Norway's $1tn wealth fund set to cut oil exploration stocks; Country's government recommends fund divest from upstream oil and gas producers
Richard Milne - FT
Norway's $1tn oil fund should sell out of upstream oil and gas producers, according to a recommendation from the country's government that has sent shockwaves through the energy sector.
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Germany's Aareal Bank Hit Hardest in ECB Risk Reality Check
Nicholas Comfort - Bloomberg
Aareal says it can't be directly compared with other lenders; Banks may face further capital erosion as ECB probe continues
German commercial real estate lender Aareal Bank AG took the hardest hit to date in a far-reaching European Central Bank investigation of how banks gauge risk.
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A Hedge Fund Steps Into Nigeria's $9 Billion Corporate Dispute; The decade-long battle centers on a tiny natural gas company.
Joe Light - Bloomberg
Nigeria potentially faces the largest financial liability in its history, and a hedge fund is coming to collect. The legal and political drama involves a deal between the country and a tiny natural gas company that was scuttled after the sudden death of Nigeria's president in 2010. The company, Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), sued and won a staggering judgment, now worth $9 billion. But it's spent years trying to get the country to pay that award, equivalent to almost 2.5 percent of its annual gross domestic product.
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| Brexit | | Financials stories regarding the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union | May's authority on the line as defeat on Brexit vote looms; PM tells EU it has choice to make too as she pins hope on last-minute concessions
George Parker, Laura Hughes, and Alex Barker - FT
Theresa May is making contingency plans for a crushing defeat of her Brexit deal next week, amid fears in Downing Street that her authority will be swept away in a series of humiliating Commons reverses.
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May Asks EU to Help Break Impasse With Days to Save Brexit
Ian Wishart , Jess Shankleman , and Thomas Penny - Bloomberg
EU makes new offer that doesn't deliver what U.K. demanded; May needs new concessions to convince Parliament by Tuesday
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday will tell the European Union that the outcome of a historic vote on her Brexit deal next week is in its hands, as signs emerged that the two sides are at least trying to make progress toward a deal.
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London's Borough Market Invokes Contingency Plan for No-Deal Brexit; Traders are stockpiling food and may establish a logistics hub in France to guarantee imports of butter and other products continue.
Richard Vines - Bloomberg
Borough Market in London has invoked a contingency plan and traders have begun stockpiling produce on concern that the U.K. might leave the European Union without an agreement on March 29. Business in the market has already slowed.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Hedge Fund Tosses Family That Controls Maker of OxyContin
Juliet Chung, Sara Randazzo and Gregory Zuckerman - WSJ
The billionaire family that controls OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, already facing mounting legal and financial pressure, has been tossed out of a large hedge fund for its alleged role in fueling the opioid crisis.
Investment entities of the Sackler family were told late last year by Hildene Capital Management that it was no longer comfortable managing their money. Hildene said last week that someone known by members of the firm had suffered an opioid tragedy.
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Wealthy millennials boosting the art market
Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi - Reuters
The global art market experienced another uptick in 2018, helped by an increase in the spending power of millennials, a report published by UBS and Art Basel said on Friday.
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