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Lead Stories
Sapphire Technology Group’s First Transform Event Focuses on Building Sustainable Growth
Josef Schroeter and Keith Todd emphasize leadership, corporate culture, artificial intelligence, and strategic planning as keys to scaling financial technology businesses.
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — October 26, 2026: Sapphire Technology Group brought together a select group of chief executives for its inaugural Sapphire Transform 2026 event, an immersive leadership program designed to help executives develop the strategies, organizational capabilities and management practices needed to build sustainable, scalable and profitable businesses.
In the first part of a Zoom video interview with John Lothian News, Sapphire Technology Group’s Josef Schroeter and Keith Todd discussed the event’s objectives, the challenges CEOs face as they prepare to scale, and the importance of building a long-term growth framework that goes beyond access to capital.
John Lothian: Week in Review (October 19th – 23rd, 2026)
JLN PRESS ROOM PICK OF THE WEEK
An Orwellian Experience at the CFTC Innovation Task Force Frontier Forum
John Lothian’s fictional 2026 Version of 1984 Comes Alive at CFTC Super Intelligence Forum, Where Words Matter
Rosenblatt’s Schack: SEC Push to Repeal Order Protection Rule Could Increase Market Fragmentation, Part Two
Industry leaders debate the future of U.S. equity market structure and tokenized securities as regulatory changes raise questions about liquidity, investor protection and competition.
Tokenized equities raise new concerns
ELMHURST, IL (JLN) — October 21, 2026: The conference also featured sharp differences over the SEC’s approach to tokenized equities, which use blockchain-based digital representations of securities.
Schack described a divide between cryptocurrency-oriented firms eager to develop tokenized securities markets and established equity market participants questioning whether the new structures would improve the existing system.
Rosenblatt’s Schack: SEC Push to Repeal Order Protection Rule Could Increase Market Fragmentation, Part One
Industry leaders debate the future of U.S. equity market structure and tokenized securities as regulatory changes raise questions about liquidity, investor protection and competition.
ELMHURST, IL (JLN) — October 21, 2026: The Securities and Exchange Commission’s push to repeal a cornerstone of U.S. equity market regulation could produce a more fragmented and complex trading environment, even as regulators seek to simplify market structure, according to Justin Schack, partner and head of market structure at Rosenblatt Securities.
MW Page of the day
KalshiEX LLC
Kalshi and S&P Dow Jones Indices announced a collaboration under which Kalshi will be licensed to trade event contracts tied to S&P DJI Indices and S&P DJI will become a preferred provider for constructing indices from Kalshi event contract data.
S&P Dow Jones Indices and Kalshi Announce Collaboration to Bring the World’s Most Trusted Benchmarks to Prediction Markets
First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Guardrails, we don't need no stinking guardrails. A cyberattack on Japan’s GMO Internet Group disrupted foreign exchange trading services, exposed potentially sensitive customer information, and prompted hackers to...
NYSE moves to bring all-or-nothing options to stocks and company earnings
OBSERVATIONS Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) reported record open interest of more than 3 million contracts in its TTF natural gas options on October 23, up 33% year over year, while combined TTF futures and options open interest reached a record 5.9 million...
AI Discovery
AI Discovery: Vibe Code Your Perfect Life
Want to know how to turn a notebook full of ideas into functioning apps without writing a single line of code?
Auditions
“The Front Runner”
A movie about the Floor. New script sections every week.
An Orwellian Experience at the CFTC’s Innovation Task Force Inaugural Frontier Forum on Super Intelligence
A fictional 2026 version of 1984 Comes Alive at CFTC Super Intelligence Forum, Where Words Matter
WASHINGTON, DC (JLN) ― October 21, 2026: In the CFTC Hearing Room, on the lobby level of the CFTC’s Three Lafayette Centre headquarters, a sense of darkness hung in the air of the well-lit room. The CFTC’s newly installed, gold-encrusted single-commissioner dais at the front of the room sat beneath the new CFTC seal, which showed an eagle holding an olive branch in its left talon and gold scales of balanced justice in its right talon. That seal, which used to show an eagle holding the scales of balanced interests under each wing over a wheel of commerce and a farmer’s plow, seemed to set the tone for this meeting.
I sat in the third row of the journalists’ cordoned-off area, with my fingers thumping atop my new government-issued laptop. My eyes were fixed on the seal, and then a large electronic message was blasted onto the wall in a stark, towering font: INNOVATION TASK FORCE: INAUGURAL FRONTIER FORUM ON SUPER INTELLIGENCE.
An Orwellian Experience at the CFTC’s Innovation Task Force Inaugural Frontier Forum on Super Intelligence
A fictional 2026 version of 1984 Comes Alive at CFTC Super Intelligence Forum, Where Words Matter
WASHINGTON, DC (JLN) ― October 21, 2026: In the CFTC Hearing Room, on the lobby level of the CFTC’s Three Lafayette Centre headquarters, a sense of darkness hung in the air of the well-lit room. The CFTC’s newly installed, gold-encrusted single-commissioner dais at the front of the room sat beneath the new CFTC seal, which showed an eagle holding an olive branch in its left talon and gold scales of balanced justice in its right talon. That seal, which used to show an eagle holding the scales of balanced interests under each wing over a wheel of commerce and a farmer’s plow, seemed to set the tone for this meeting.
I sat in the third row of the journalists’ cordoned-off area, with my fingers thumping atop my new government-issued laptop. My eyes were fixed on the seal, and then a large electronic message was blasted onto the wall in a stark, towering font: INNOVATION TASK FORCE: INAUGURAL FRONTIER FORUM ON SUPER INTELLIGENCE.
AI Discovery: Vibe Code Your Perfect Life
Want to know how to turn a notebook full of ideas into functioning apps without writing a single line of code?
John Lothian: Week in Review (October 12th – 16th, 2026)
JLN PRESS ROOM PICK OF THE WEEK
CFTC Staff Told to Retract Analysis of Suspicious Oil Trades on Iran
The CFTC Chairman’s adviser intervened to take over the examination of lucrative bets that were made around Trump’s reversal on the Iran power plant attack.
AI Discovery: Creating Internal AI Tools That Don’t Hallucinate
In this episode of AI Discovery, we explore how companies can use artificial intelligence to build custom internal tools that previously required massive development teams, and how to keep those tools from hallucinating.
Mizuho’s Gupta Says the Benchmark, Not the Contract, Is the Real Innovation in Compute Futures
Mizuho compute market industry researcher compares GPU capacity to electricity, not oil, and warns rival benchmarks will fragment liquidity
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — October 12, 2026: Compute futures will succeed or fail on the trustworthiness of the benchmarks they settle against, not on the contracts themselves, industry compute researcher Vishal Gupta, executive director at Mizuho Americas, said in an interview with John Lothian News.
“A compute future in itself is not the innovation here; I think the benchmark is the real innovation,” Gupta said. Exchanges can race to list first, he added, but “the winner will be the one who will govern the benchmark the best.”
John Lothian: Week in Review (October 5th – 9th, 2026)
JLN PRESS ROOM PICK OF THE WEEK
Old Downtown Chicago Trading Hub Is Reborn as an AI Data Center
The former headquarters of Cboe Global Markets Inc. will soon house 33 megawatts of capacity and bring in rents much higher than the average downtown office building
Gensler to Supreme Court: “I Was There,” and Dodd-Frank Didn’t Make the CFTC a Sports Book
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — October 9, 2026: Gary Gensler was often a burr under the futures industry's saddle while he ran the CFTC. Now he is TradFi's best friend, filing amicus briefs telling courts sports betting isn't part of the Commodity Exchange Act and never...
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An Orwellian Experience at the CFTC’s Innovation Task Force Inaugural Frontier Forum on Super Intelligence
A fictional 2026 version of 1984 Comes Alive at CFTC Super Intelligence Forum, Where Words Matter
WASHINGTON, DC (JLN) ― October 21, 2026: In the CFTC Hearing Room, on the lobby level of the CFTC’s Three Lafayette Centre headquarters, a sense of darkness hung in the air of the well-lit room. The CFTC’s newly installed, gold-encrusted single-commissioner dais at the front of the room sat beneath the new CFTC seal, which showed an eagle holding an olive branch in its left talon and gold scales of balanced justice in its right talon. That seal, which used to show an eagle holding the scales of balanced interests under each wing over a wheel of commerce and a farmer’s plow, seemed to set the tone for this meeting.
I sat in the third row of the journalists’ cordoned-off area, with my fingers thumping atop my new government-issued laptop. My eyes were fixed on the seal, and then a large electronic message was blasted onto the wall in a stark, towering font: INNOVATION TASK FORCE: INAUGURAL FRONTIER FORUM ON SUPER INTELLIGENCE.
AI Discovery: Vibe Code Your Perfect Life
Want to know how to turn a notebook full of ideas into functioning apps without writing a single line of code?
John Lothian: Week in Review (October 12th – 16th, 2026)
JLN PRESS ROOM PICK OF THE WEEK
CFTC Staff Told to Retract Analysis of Suspicious Oil Trades on Iran
The CFTC Chairman’s adviser intervened to take over the examination of lucrative bets that were made around Trump’s reversal on the Iran power plant attack.
AI Discovery: Creating Internal AI Tools That Don’t Hallucinate
In this episode of AI Discovery, we explore how companies can use artificial intelligence to build custom internal tools that previously required massive development teams, and how to keep those tools from hallucinating.
Mizuho’s Gupta Says the Benchmark, Not the Contract, Is the Real Innovation in Compute Futures
Mizuho compute market industry researcher compares GPU capacity to electricity, not oil, and warns rival benchmarks will fragment liquidity
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — October 12, 2026: Compute futures will succeed or fail on the trustworthiness of the benchmarks they settle against, not on the contracts themselves, industry compute researcher Vishal Gupta, executive director at Mizuho Americas, said in an interview with John Lothian News.
“A compute future in itself is not the innovation here; I think the benchmark is the real innovation,” Gupta said. Exchanges can race to list first, he added, but “the winner will be the one who will govern the benchmark the best.”
John Lothian: Week in Review (October 5th – 9th, 2026)
JLN PRESS ROOM PICK OF THE WEEK
Old Downtown Chicago Trading Hub Is Reborn as an AI Data Center
The former headquarters of Cboe Global Markets Inc. will soon house 33 megawatts of capacity and bring in rents much higher than the average downtown office building
Gensler to Supreme Court: “I Was There,” and Dodd-Frank Didn’t Make the CFTC a Sports Book
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — October 9, 2026: Gary Gensler was often a burr under the futures industry's saddle while he ran the CFTC. Now he is TradFi's best friend, filing amicus briefs telling courts sports betting isn't part of the Commodity Exchange Act and never...
AI Discovery: How a Non-Technical Founder Built a Prop Trading Firm Using Claude AI
Want to know how a non-technical founder used AI to build a prop trading firm from the ground up? We sat down with Melissa Footlick, the founder and CEO of Catalyst, to discuss how she leverages artificial intelligence across every area of her business and personal life.
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