Your guide to the happenings in derivatives markets and trading since 2000
John Lothian Newsletter
Today's Newsletter
Blythe Masters Stepping Down and the End of a Blockchain Era; Crypto Pump-and-Dumps
Get a FREE 90 day trial of John Lothian Newsletter First ReadBitmain - What's Happening to the Billion Dollar IPO?Thom Thompson, John Lothian NewsFor the first three quarters of 2018, investors and analysts speculated about when, then if,...
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JLN Options Newsletter
Today's Newsletter
OCC default fund drops $5bn; OptionMetrics Research Conference Takeaways
Get a FREE 90 day trial of John Lothian Newsletter Lead StoriesOCC default fund drops $5bn under new approachAlessandro Aimone - Risk.net (SUBSCRIPTION)The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) lopped 36% off its clearing fund requirement in the...
Everything you need to know about Options Today
Lead Stories
Bitmain – What’s Happening to the Billion Dollar IPO?
For the first three quarters of 2018, investors and analysts speculated about when, then if, Bitmain would go public. During a pre-IPO private fund raising, reports leaked out that Bitmain was valuing itself at $15 billion or maybe even $18 billion. During the third quarter bitcoin, which drives industry development, traded at around $6,500, shooting up briefly to the $8,000 range.
Those summer 2018 bitcoin prices were $3,000 higher than current ones. Is it any surprise that Bitmain’s IPO may not launch after all?
Bob Cox On The Birth Of Simex and Growth Of Asia’s Futures Markets
Bob Cox sat down with Jim Kharouf of John Lothian News in 2014 to speak about his experience in helping start Simex in Singapore in 1984. As the only CME floor trader with experience in Southeast Asia, having grown up in Manilla, Philippines,...
MarketsWiki
Page of the day
Patrick H. Arbor
A Cook County judge rejected Pat Arbor’s latest plea for release, keeping the 81-year-old Arbor in jail for more than 130 days and counting. Arbor was jailed on a contempt of court charge arising from his failure to pay his ex-wife $18 million in a divorce judgment.
CryptoMarketsWiki
Page of the day
Tagomi
Tagomi launched its institution-oriented agency brokerage platform for cryptocurrency transactions yesterday. Tagomi is backed by several venture firms, including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
Lead Stories
Bitmain – What’s Happening to the Billion Dollar IPO?
For the first three quarters of 2018, investors and analysts speculated about when, then if, Bitmain would go public. During a pre-IPO private fund raising, reports leaked out that Bitmain was valuing itself at $15 billion or maybe even $18 billion. During the third quarter bitcoin, which drives industry development, traded at around $6,500, shooting up briefly to the $8,000 range.
Those summer 2018 bitcoin prices were $3,000 higher than current ones. Is it any surprise that Bitmain’s IPO may not launch after all?
Bob Cox On The Birth Of Simex and Growth Of Asia’s Futures Markets
Bob Cox sat down with Jim Kharouf of John Lothian News in 2014 to speak about his experience in helping start Simex in Singapore in 1984. As the only CME floor trader with experience in Southeast Asia, having grown up in Manilla, Philippines,...
The Spread – Hiring Notices – 12/14
According to Trade Alert's Henry Schwartz, the week of December 17 - 21 will likely see the five billionth option of 2018 change hands. But while we all wait with bated breath for that milestone, JLN has you covered with a recap of some of the...
Bob Cox Remembrances
I believe I first met Bob Cox sometime in 1975. He was a trainee rotating within various departments of the Continental Bank.
A Look at Nascent Chinese Commodity Options
Big numbers for white sugar, soybean meal and copper options volumes It’s already a record year for U.S. listed options volumes and there are still two weeks of trading left to go. The OCC isn’t the only clearing house with volumes surging -...
The Spread – A “Complete Guide” – 12/7/18
JLN discovered a copy of “The Complete Guide to Options Selling,” authored by the guys behind the now defunct “hedge fund” OptionSellers. It’s interesting to read in hindsight.
Market Outlook with Cboe’s Ed Tilly: Regs, Crypto and Liquidity
In this video, Cboe Chairman and CEO Ed Tilly addresses the SEC’s commentary on market data offerings, what’s next for crypto products, and the need to alter regulations that are hindering index options liquidity.
Bitcoin’s role in the Mueller investigation
What do the investigation by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller and bitcoin have in common? Potentially, they’re both connected to a Russian hacker named Alexander Vinnik.
Murphy & McGonigle Launches New Commodities & Futures Division To Help Firms Deal With Regulatory Challenges
These days, traders need good lawyers. They are a must-have in the age of regulatory overreach after the Dodd-Frank law, and for comprehending and complying with the rules as they get refined and re-tuned and as crypto markets come into the mix.
The Curious Case of Our Regulatory Environment (Part II), or Why the Earth Isn’t Flat.
Two years ago I wrote about the Commodity Futures Trading Commission enforcement action against Don Wilson and his company DRW Investments alleging price manipulation in certain financial instruments.
Wilson goes all in against the CFTC and the industry wins
There are traders who put their careers on the line every day in the markets. And then there’s Don Wilson, who put his career and firm on the line in court with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and won.
The Spread – “Florida Man” Edition – 11/30
The Spread is sponsored by MIAX. Sadly, it appears no one had a funny VIX-related sign at a sporting event this week, but never fear, there's plenty of content in this edition of "The Spread" - the Florida options trading firm blow-up,...
The Spread – Hiring Notices – 12/14
According to Trade Alert's Henry Schwartz, the week of December 17 - 21 will likely see the five billionth option of 2018 change hands. But while we all wait with bated breath for that milestone, JLN has you covered with a recap of some of the...
Bob Cox Remembrances
I believe I first met Bob Cox sometime in 1975. He was a trainee rotating within various departments of the Continental Bank.
A Look at Nascent Chinese Commodity Options
Big numbers for white sugar, soybean meal and copper options volumes It’s already a record year for U.S. listed options volumes and there are still two weeks of trading left to go. The OCC isn’t the only clearing house with volumes surging -...
The Spread – A “Complete Guide” – 12/7/18
JLN discovered a copy of “The Complete Guide to Options Selling,” authored by the guys behind the now defunct “hedge fund” OptionSellers. It’s interesting to read in hindsight.
Market Outlook with Cboe’s Ed Tilly: Regs, Crypto and Liquidity
In this video, Cboe Chairman and CEO Ed Tilly addresses the SEC’s commentary on market data offerings, what’s next for crypto products, and the need to alter regulations that are hindering index options liquidity.
Bitcoin’s role in the Mueller investigation
What do the investigation by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller and bitcoin have in common? Potentially, they’re both connected to a Russian hacker named Alexander Vinnik.
Murphy & McGonigle Launches New Commodities & Futures Division To Help Firms Deal With Regulatory Challenges
These days, traders need good lawyers. They are a must-have in the age of regulatory overreach after the Dodd-Frank law, and for comprehending and complying with the rules as they get refined and re-tuned and as crypto markets come into the mix.
The Curious Case of Our Regulatory Environment (Part II), or Why the Earth Isn’t Flat.
Two years ago I wrote about the Commodity Futures Trading Commission enforcement action against Don Wilson and his company DRW Investments alleging price manipulation in certain financial instruments.
Wilson goes all in against the CFTC and the industry wins
There are traders who put their careers on the line every day in the markets. And then there’s Don Wilson, who put his career and firm on the line in court with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and won.
The Spread – “Florida Man” Edition – 11/30
The Spread is sponsored by MIAX. Sadly, it appears no one had a funny VIX-related sign at a sporting event this week, but never fear, there's plenty of content in this edition of "The Spread" - the Florida options trading firm blow-up,...
Tether: The Cryptocurrency Markets’ Sword of Damocles
If 2018 was the year of the ICO (initial coin offering), then October of 2018 was “Stablecoin Month.” Between the launch of new “stablecoins” like the Gemini Dollar and the ominous news surrounding Tether (the most commonly-used stablecoin in...
The Business Bitmain Dominates
Bitmain, maybe the world’s largest cryptocurrency company, told us a lot about the risks and rewards inherent in being a dominant actor in the fast moving cryptocurrency industry when it published its draft IPO prospectus. Whether that IPO...
Consensus: Invest recap
Chuck Mackie is a business development, PR and marketing specialist who is senior adviser at Maven Wave Partners. He is also a contributing editor to John Lothian News. In May 2018, Coindesk held its three-day Consensus conference in New York...
Predictive Analytics: Finding the Right Patterns
Can we predict the future? Or at least have a better conception of potential outcomes? PreData is on the case. In this video, PreData CEO Hazem Dawani discusses how his firm approaches predictive analytics. (Hint: there's a lot of data and...
2018 MarketsWiki Education Series
our series of talks featuring top professionals from the financial industry aimed at students, interns and first year professionals.
The Chicago Ecosystem For Crypto Assets And Blockchain Technology – Colleen Sullivan, CMT Digital
"In order to have a healthy ecosystem for a new industry you really need four components. One is government involvement/regulatory clarity, two is academic institution involvement, three is trade associations and other advocacy groups and the...
Rules for CEOs, Senior Managers, Interns and Bob’s Kids – Bob Fitzsimmons, Wedbush
"Understand the implications, the ramifications of what you do - what it does downstream and what it does upstream. Understand the whole process." What do "Patton," "The Right Stuff" and "Goodfellas" have in common? They're all used by Bob...
The Growing Value of Data – Oliver Albers, Nasdaq
"When I started in this business, data was very, very uncool. Trust me." Data is not uncool any longer. Consider that every minute there are more than 12 million texts sent and more than 4.3 million YouTube videos watched. It is estimated...
Lessons from My Crypto Career Risk – Tim McCourt, CME Group
"[In July 2000, my boss] said, 'Tim, tomorrow, you're going to start on the equity derivatives desk at JP Morgan.' I was like, 'Fantastic. I'm super excited.' I go home, no one really has a laptop, I got my first cell phone two weeks before -...
Avoiding Spoofing Shortfalls – Renato Mariotti, Thompson Coburn
Renato Mariotti prosecuted Michael Coscia for spoofing as a federal prosecutor, ran for Illinois attorney general and can frequently be seen on cable television commenting on current events. So when he talks about spoofing and markets, as...
Cognitive Flexibility in Finance – Kevin Darby, Blue Trading Systems
"Don't over-engineer it. There's a huge tendency, especially for technical people, to make up complexity." The problems Kevin Darby, managing partner at Blue Trading Systems, encounters as a fintech vendor are very different from those he...
Discussing “InfoSec” – Mike Phillips, VSEC
"How many small or medium business can survive a $3.5 million hit? When small and medium business get hit, they typically go out of business. When the big ones get hit, know what they do? They change their names." If it is connected then it...
