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John Lothian Newsletter
Today's Newsletter
Europe to recognise LCH, ICE & LME as CCPs in ‘no-deal’ Brexit
Get a FREE 90 day trial of John Lothian Newsletter First Read Hits & Takes JLN Staff Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker formed two task forces to tackle the state's pension problems. Former CBOE CEO William Brodsky is co-chairing one of those...
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JLN Options Newsletter
Today's Newsletter
Big Three Stock Exchanges Sue SEC Over Trading-Fee Plan
Get a FREE 90 day trial of John Lothian Newsletter Observations & InsightThe Spread - Alternative History - 2/15JohnLothianNews.comIt was a semi-slow week for options news, the big exception being the SEC's surprise rejection of the OCC's...
Everything you need to know about Options Today
Lead Stories
The Spread – Alternative History – 2/15
It was a semi-slow week for options news, the big exception being the SEC's surprise rejection of the OCC's capital plan. In this episode, we wonder what could have happened in a different universe. The following are stories referenced in...
Hits and Takes from STAC’s Midwinter Meeting
Often there is too much content from an interview to jam into one video. So in this video we’ve compiled a few notable comments from multiple people about a multitude of subjects. Imperative Execution CEO and Founder Roman Ginis talks about...
MarketsWiki
Page of the day
Marshall Nicholson
Marshall Nicholson was appointed president of ICE Bonds, a new offering that combines the Intercontinental Exchange’s ICE BondPoint, TMC Bonds and ICE Credit Trade under a single management team.
CryptoMarketsWiki
Page of the day
Craig Wright
Craig Wright, chief scientist at English blockchain startup nChain, has once again asserted his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, this time in a public statement regarding Ethereum provided to the CFTC on Friday.
Lead Stories
The Spread – Alternative History – 2/15
It was a semi-slow week for options news, the big exception being the SEC's surprise rejection of the OCC's capital plan. In this episode, we wonder what could have happened in a different universe. The following are stories referenced in...
Hits and Takes from STAC’s Midwinter Meeting
Often there is too much content from an interview to jam into one video. So in this video we’ve compiled a few notable comments from multiple people about a multitude of subjects. Imperative Execution CEO and Founder Roman Ginis talks about...
What’s Trendy? Shining a Light on 2018 Derivatives Volumes and Open Interest
The totals are in. And the winner is… almost everyone! It was a great year for the global exchange traded derivatives industry as for the first time ever annual volume was more than 30 billion contracts. Volumes grew at a 20.2 percent clip,...
Taking Wall Street Know-How to the Cannabis Industry
A Gallup poll at the end of 2018 found that 66 percent of Americans support the legalization of marijuana. These opinions run across demographics and party lines, too — 53 percent of Republicans were for legalization and 59 percent of people...
The Spread – Everything Is Gonna Be (A) Fine – 2/8
What's your favorite TLA (Three Letter Acronym)? If it's "SOQ," then you should definitely tune in. If SOQ is not your favorite TLA, still tune in as there is plenty more exchange news to catch up on. The following are stories referenced in...
The Pathway to Liquidity in Unregistered Securities
In the United States last year there were more private unregistered securities issued than public ones. In this video from STAC’s 93rd Annual Midwinter Meeting, Vince Molinari, CEO of Templum Markets, talks about the decline in IPOs, building...
Fintech in 2019: The Year Cloud Computing Hype Gets Realized
We’ve been hearing the same buzzwords year after year - machine learning, big data, blockchain, cloud computing. In this video from STAC’s 93rd Annual Midwinter Meeting, USAM Group CEO Feargal O’Sullivan talks about why this is the year that...
Dash Financial Technologies Eyes Equities and Buy-Side Growth
Glenn Lesko came on board as Dash Financial Technologies’ chief growth officer in summer 2018. In this video from STAC’s 93rd Annual Midwinter Meeting, Lesko talks about the buy-side demand for deploying more options strategies, the potential...
Trading Venues and Best Execution – Roman Ginis, Imperative Execution
Roman Ginis, CEO and founder of Imperative Execution, knew from his time as a trader what issues he wanted to address when building a venue: adverse selection and market impact. These implicit costs of trading led to the development of...
Options Etymology: The Evolution of “Volatility”
One year after the vol-pocalypse, let's look at volatilityDo you know the history of the word volatility? It comes from the French verb “voler,” meaning to fly. (Interestingly, voler has a lesser used definition, "to steal.")By the mid-1700s,...
The Spread – Phil’s Shadow – 2/1
What a January for the U.S. - the government shutdown, the polar vortex, and the Consolidated Audit Trail?! What's next? The following are the stories referenced in this week's episode: -AccuWeather -> Polar vortex's bitter cold could cost...
How Many Lives Does This CAT Have Left?
If the old saying holds true, one has to wonder how many lives the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) has left. Yesterday, it was leaked to the WSJ that the contractor hired to build the Consolidated Audit Trail, Thesys Technologies, was fired by...
What’s Trendy? Shining a Light on 2018 Derivatives Volumes and Open Interest
The totals are in. And the winner is… almost everyone! It was a great year for the global exchange traded derivatives industry as for the first time ever annual volume was more than 30 billion contracts. Volumes grew at a 20.2 percent clip,...
Taking Wall Street Know-How to the Cannabis Industry
A Gallup poll at the end of 2018 found that 66 percent of Americans support the legalization of marijuana. These opinions run across demographics and party lines, too — 53 percent of Republicans were for legalization and 59 percent of people...
The Spread – Everything Is Gonna Be (A) Fine – 2/8
What's your favorite TLA (Three Letter Acronym)? If it's "SOQ," then you should definitely tune in. If SOQ is not your favorite TLA, still tune in as there is plenty more exchange news to catch up on. The following are stories referenced in...
The Pathway to Liquidity in Unregistered Securities
In the United States last year there were more private unregistered securities issued than public ones. In this video from STAC’s 93rd Annual Midwinter Meeting, Vince Molinari, CEO of Templum Markets, talks about the decline in IPOs, building...
Fintech in 2019: The Year Cloud Computing Hype Gets Realized
We’ve been hearing the same buzzwords year after year - machine learning, big data, blockchain, cloud computing. In this video from STAC’s 93rd Annual Midwinter Meeting, USAM Group CEO Feargal O’Sullivan talks about why this is the year that...
Dash Financial Technologies Eyes Equities and Buy-Side Growth
Glenn Lesko came on board as Dash Financial Technologies’ chief growth officer in summer 2018. In this video from STAC’s 93rd Annual Midwinter Meeting, Lesko talks about the buy-side demand for deploying more options strategies, the potential...
Trading Venues and Best Execution – Roman Ginis, Imperative Execution
Roman Ginis, CEO and founder of Imperative Execution, knew from his time as a trader what issues he wanted to address when building a venue: adverse selection and market impact. These implicit costs of trading led to the development of...
Options Etymology: The Evolution of “Volatility”
One year after the vol-pocalypse, let's look at volatilityDo you know the history of the word volatility? It comes from the French verb “voler,” meaning to fly. (Interestingly, voler has a lesser used definition, "to steal.")By the mid-1700s,...
The Spread – Phil’s Shadow – 2/1
What a January for the U.S. - the government shutdown, the polar vortex, and the Consolidated Audit Trail?! What's next? The following are the stories referenced in this week's episode: -AccuWeather -> Polar vortex's bitter cold could cost...
How Many Lives Does This CAT Have Left?
If the old saying holds true, one has to wonder how many lives the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) has left. Yesterday, it was leaked to the WSJ that the contractor hired to build the Consolidated Audit Trail, Thesys Technologies, was fired by...
Eyes on the House: STA’s Outlook
The midterm elections ushered in a new legislative balance of power. That means that the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services will have roughly 20 new members. Luckily, the Security Traders Association will have affiliates in some 13 to...
The Spread – Closing Props – 1/18
Give ‘em their props - they gave it a go. (Plus, the OCC’s big decision was revealed. The following are links to stories referenced in this week's episode: -> The Trade - OCC overhauls legacy clearing system with Cinnober-> Reuters -...
Crypto cybercrime crosses into the physical world
Last week, the alleged kidnappers of Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, the wife of the Norwegian multi-millionaire real estate investor Tom Hagen, demanded a ransom of €9 million worth of Monero (XMR), a cryptocurrency known for allowing blockchain...
“Not Your Keys, Not Your Bitcoin”
Thom Thompson is a derivatives specialist who has worked in product design, business development and regulatory roles for the CFTC, the Chicago Board of Trade, The Clearing Corporation, Swiss Exchange, Eurex and Eurex Clearing. Much of the...
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...
