Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds
FIA EXPO 2023 to Spotlight Artificial Intelligence
Walt Lukken, President & CEO of FIA (Futures Industry Association), revealed that artificial intelligence (AI) will take center stage at this year’s EXPO 2023 in an exclusive interview with John Lothian News. The Innovator’s Pavilion will showcase companies offering AI solutions aimed at enhancing market efficiency and functionality. Additionally, AI will be a prominent theme in panel discussions during the event.
Lukken highlighted the overwhelming interest in AI, stating that it was the most sought-after topic among queries sent to the EXPO steering committee before the event.
This year’s EXPO will commence on a Monday, a departure from previous years, with keynote speaker Jon Meacham addressing the audience. Meacham’s speech will delve into how history may assess the leadership qualities of today’s U.S. leaders, as Lukken explained.
HOU is the Domestic Crude Oil Benchmark on the Move
Jeff Barbuto is trying to build a new benchmark in U.S. domestic crude oil at Intercontinental Exchange, where he has worked for 21 years running oil and is now the head of global oil markets. The benchmark is HOU, the Midland WTI contract for the Gulf Coast first started five years ago with the help of Magellan Midstream Partners.
Barbuto’s efforts to start building the new benchmark started 10 to 15 years ago as issues with supply gluts at Cushing, OK encouraged a solution to move oil from the middle of the country to the Gulf Coast.
In 2011, the Brent-WTI spread went negative for the first time, after running at about a two-dollar premium for the West Texas Intermediate the North Sea Brent crude over, Barbuto said. WTI would go as much at $25 below Brent in 2011 because of supply gluts in Cushing as more Canadian crude oil made its way to Cushing and more pipelines of crude were coming up to Cushing but not having an outlet, Barbuto said.
WFE CEO Nandini Sukumar speaks with JLN about ESG progress at the World Federation of Exchanges, the WFE’s new green equity principles, and the difference between sustainability and ESG
John Lothian News interviewed Nandini Sukumar, Chief Executive Officer at the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), about the findings of the WFE’s 9th Sustainability Survey of Exchanges. First, Sukumar discussed the WFE’s process for conducting the survey and its findings, which reflect the many ways that exchanges have increased their activity in the sustainability and ESG areas.
Option Volatility Indicator Developer Guy Cohen Talks to JLN about the OVI, His Career and Building a Hedge Fund
Guy Cohen was interviewed by John Lothian of John Lothian News about how he found his way to the markets, about his best selling options books, which are on every trader’s shelves, and on the Options Volatility Indicator, a patented tool to help traders make sense of position-building options activity.
His options software won a tender competition from Euronext-Liffe for a white label version, which was a big move for the company. Even bigger was when NYSE bought out Euronext, making NYSE Euronext his software company’s client. Cohen’s software and options work is used by many well-known traders. He spoke with us about how traders use it and why some information is better than other information.
Walt Lukken Reflects on FIA IDX 2023 and the Good That FIA and Its Members Do
FIA CEO and President Walt Lukken was interviewed by JLN Correspondent Julie Ros at the FIA International Derivatives Week (IDX) in London recently about the conference and related topics.
Lukken spoke about what stood out at the conference, what interesting takeaways on regulations he heard and what the most important topic was.
The Smart Confirm Trading Floor Renaissance is Bringing New Life to the CME Trading Floor
Why has volume significantly increased in the open outcry trading pits at the CME Group in recent months compared to before the pits were closed for the Covid-19 breakout? Open outcry volume stood under 50% of total volume before Covid-19 closed the pits, but in the...
FTSE Russell Reconstitution Podcast Interview with Catherine Yoshimoto and Tim McCourt
John Lothian News interviewed Tim McCourt, Global Head of Financial and OTC Products at the CME Group and Catherine Yoshimoto, Director of Product Management for the Russell US Indexes, FTSE Russell about the June 23 FTSE Russell reconstitution.
Jason Radzik on BNP Paribas’ Growth, ION, FTX, and Industry Ethics
JLN spoke with Jason Radzik, managing director at BNP Paribas, at the 2023 FIA conference in Boca Raton in March about the company’s growth and acquisitions, the ION attack, and the consequences for the industry of the FTX collapse.
John Vaile Saw the Potential of Financial Futures and Helped Make Them A Success
John Vaile had an aunt who invested in the stock market who bought Vaile some stock when he was 10 years old and that experience caused him to want to be a stockbroker. As a result, Vaile became a student of the market.
He went to a couple of different colleges in Illinois, then ended up in a program at Wharton for students who did not graduate from college.
Vaile was working for Morgan Stanley and living in Lake Geneva, WI, surrounded by friends in the futures markets and he wanted to get involved with what was happening. He said he badgered Morgan Stanley to get involved. They gave him permission, but he said he could see how long it would take for them to truly become involved and he did not have the patience for that.
Is the era of the traditional FCM model coming to an end?
No, at Abaxx Exchange we don’t believe the era of the traditional FCM model is coming to an end, nor should it be. However, the recent Risk.net article “Brokers slam CME over ‘conflict of interest’ in FCM plan’ made us realize that not everyone may feel the same way, and we need to make our case for the raditional FCM model.
Some exchange groups ranging from the largest that date back more than a century to the digital asset focused upstarts have asserted that risk mutualization processes — currently favored and handled by FCMs — can and should be disintermediated.
Mark Smith’s Path To Electronic Trading: From Banking to Blockchain
Mark Smith started his career at broker-dealer Edward Jones, became an entrepreneur and then after his second firm was purchased by Citi, he found himself working for the bank, which he found an eye-opening experience.
TT’s Todd Talks Talos, Crypto, What Comes Next and Energizing a Motivated Team
Trading Technologies CEO Keith Todd made a deal with Talos, a provider of institutional digital asset trading technology, and John Lothian News wanted to know more about it and what it meant for TT and its customers.
So JLN sat down with Todd in TT’s offices in London on the Monday of IDX week to shoot a video interview with Todd as TT was preparing to make the announcement.
Tom Kadlec Retirement Party in Pictures
ADMIS President Tom Kadlec is retiring at the end of June and on June 15 the firm held a retirement party for him on the rooftop deck of the CBOT Building, attended by ADM and ADMIS personnel and others from around the derivatives industry. Kadlec was presented with a...
Craig Iseli Talks SpiderRock History and Growth in JLN OIC 2022 Interview
JLN interviewed Craig Iseli of SpiderRock at the 2022 Options Conference in San Antonio, Texas. We asked Iseli how SpiderRock started and what his role is. Iseli started running the business side of the firm and his business partner George Papa ran the trading side. Today, Iseli is the chief operating officer and Papa is the CEO.
Remembrances of Hal Hansen
Hal Hansen, the longtime Cargill Investors Services president and a former chairman of the NFA board of directors, has passed away at the age of 85. Hansen was a Cargill executive for 40 years before retiring to Naples, Fla. I first met him in 1984 when he was a...
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Investors blocked from betting on US congressional elections by regulator
First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Cheryl and I are safely home from Bermuda and The World Federation of Exchanges Annual Meeting. We also celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary, so as the saying goes, happy wife, happy life. Now, back to work....
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The Spread
Options Discovery Episode 20: Intro to Options and Earnings; Etoro Equity and Derivatives Investment Analyst, Callie Cox, Breaks Down Options and Earnings With Jln’s Alex Teng
In this episode of Options Discovery, Asma Awass introduces equity option price behavior around earnings announcements. Alex Teng dives deeper into this topic with Callie Cox, a seasoned investment analyst and content creator from the “social-based” brThinkorswimm eToro.
OCC liquidity risk doubles to all-time high in Q2
Lead Stories OCC liquidity risk doubles to all-time high in Q2; Concentration of activity around June expiration responsible for record rise Joshua Walker - Risk.net The estimated largest payment obligation Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) could have faced had a...