Financials
FIA 50 Years of Financial Futures Celebration
2022 is the 50th anniversary of financial futures and the birth of the modern exchange traded derivatives markets. In this video, John Lothian News discusses the birth of the financial futures industry in 1972 and how it has evolved into a market that traded $53.9 billion contracts this year.
Trading of futures and options on track to a record year – FIA
Trading of futures and options is on track to a record year, with higher levels of trading activity in many sectors, notably interest rate and equity index contracts, according to the FIA’s Will Acworth, who went over the volume numbers for the first nine months of 2022 in a FIA webinar titled, “Q3 2022 Trends in Futures and Options Trading” Wednesday.
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.
Blue Ocean Technologies CEO Brian Hyndman Sees Clear Sailing for ATS in Overnight Trading
Brian Hyndman was recently promoted to CEO of Blue Ocean Technologies, which has developed from a broker-dealer that matched buyers and sellers by phone during the overnight market hours to an ATS that allows Asian investors to trade U.S. stocks electronically during overnight market hours. Hyndman was recently interviewed by John Lothian News about Blue Ocean and his new role.
Hyndman, a longtime Nasdaq executive, joined Blue Ocean to help raise capital to grow the company. He was eventually asked to join Blue Ocean and run it. Before Hyndman joined, the company’s vision was to trade just ETFs; he extended it out to all NMS (National Market System) stocks. Today, Blue Ocean offers trading on more than 12,000 NMS stocks on its platform.
Citadel Securities’ Troy Kane discusses the growth of retail trading, Citadel’s wade into Crypto, and its growth in Asian markets
Troy Kane got his start when he was 14 years old working on the trading floors of the Chicago Board of Trade for his mother’s company and clerking for locals. “My first job was to collect the trading cards every 15 minutes and tally up positions,” Kane said. “So if you were wrong, you were usually fired that day, so you better not be wrong. I did that every summer in high school and learned the business from the ground up.”
Iwanaga Moriyuki – OSE President & CEO Offers Update on Exchange Initiatives
Veteran Exchange Executive Gives Exclusive Video Interview to JLN Iwanaga Moriyuki, President and CEO of the Osaka Exchange (OSE), updated John Lothian News about several important exchange initiatives at Japan Exchange Group (JPX) in an interview over Zoom last week....
John McPartland – The History of Financial Futures – JLN
Longtime Banker Played Key Role During Early Days of IMM Currency Deliveries John McPartland joined Continental Bank in 1973 after leaving the Air Force. He worked two years in the internal audit department where he learned about secured financing. He was honing his...
Telstra’s Adam Day Expounds on November Equinix Deal; Opportunities for Trading, Fintech, Crypto, Gaming Into Asia
In early November Telstra partnered with Equinix to enhance the Telstra Octagon financial services solution and expand global access and direct connectivity between North America and eight of the world’s major futures and commodities exchanges. JLN interviewed Telstra’s Adam Day after the FIA EXPO about this deal and what it means for Telstra’s customers and potential clients.
The Telstra Octagon solution uses Telstra’s ultra-low latency global networks to support high-frequency trading activities. And now, with Telstra’s financial trading solution available on Platform Equinix, Telstra can now offer financial organizations improved network connectivity, access to the Equinix data center and colocation and Equinix Fabric interconnection services adjacent to the exchanges.
New FTSE Russell Research Links ESG Performance With Pandemic Preparedness
The long-running pandemic has thrown much of the global economy off-kilter in the last two years, but some sectors have nonetheless thrived – ESG among them. Capital linked to FTSE Russell’s sustainable Investment indexes, for example, has grown to more than $167 billion, according to the company’s year-end insight from Arne Staal, the CEO of FTSE Russell.
Broadway 2.0’s Long and Winding Road to Independence
Michael Chin is the CEO of Broadway Technology, which recently went through a rebrand and is now just Broadway. The path to Broadway 2.0, as Chin called it, was an unusual one. Chin was interviewed recently by John Lothian News about its journey from acquisition to independence.
Broadway Technology has been working on a renewal since it was spun out of ION Trading after the U.K.’s Competitive Markets Authority told ION it had to spin back out most of Broadway because of overlap in both firms’ fixed income offerings.
FIA Asia-V: Facing Challenges of Pandemic, Opportunities in Retail, ESG and Crypto
Much like its Western counterpart, the Asian derivatives industry spent the last year navigating an ever-changing environment dominated by the pandemic and the emergence of new market trends in retail investment, cryptocurrencies and ESG.
In a discussion on the outlook for Asia-Pacific exchanges on Day One of the FIA’s Asia-V conference, panel participants reported no slowdowns in opportunities despite a host of challenges faced by exchange-traded markets in 2021.
FIA Expo 2021 Video: ‘Everyone is Threatened’ by Disintermediation
Robert Fitzsimmons, executive vice president at Wedbush Securities, spoke with John Lothian News at FIA Expo 2021 about his observations, insights and opinions on everything from the conference itself to the state of cryptocurrency today. As executive vice president, Fitzsimmons manages futures, fixed income groups, and securities lending.
Among the talking points from the conference, one topic of concern was the notion of disintermediation, which essentially cuts out the middle men — removing banks, brokers, or other third parties — allowing individuals to invest directly.
FIA Expo 2021: Exegy Merger Seen as Solid Marriage of Products, Businesses
Why bring Exegy Inc. and Vela Trading Systems together? The firms combined forces last May and two of their executives talked to JLN about the reason behind their merger at the FIA Expo 2021 in November.
David Taylor, Exegy’s chief technology officer and co-president, said the combination allows the companies to have more scale in the marketplace and gives them more opportunities to invest in the expansion of the company’s offerings. “Growing organically and inorganically was always part of our agenda,” he said.
FIA Expo 2021 Video: Greenwood Project Takes Off Like a Rocket
Bevon Joseph, executive director and co-founder of the Greenwood Project — along with his wife, Elois Joseph — is a victim of his own success. The program has boomed, and he is thrilled.
“The impact has been crazy,” he said. “We didn’t see this coming, but we are happy.”
In a video interview with John Lothian News at FIA Expo 2021, Joseph said the program, which introduces high school and college students in underserved communities to the financial services industry, has seen especially dramatic expansion in 2020 and 2021 with the attraction of new talent and the extension of the project to new cities.
The History of Financial Futures: Lee Oliver’s Journey Back to His Beginnings, Part 2
The most recent chapter of Lee Oliver’s career took him back into the world of banking and FX trading.
In the second of a two-part video interview with John Lothian, Oliver talked about his transition from a busy career as a freelance writer for Euromoney to a job writing and editing for Cititbank’s wire service.
FTX Implosion Prompts Call by DOJ Arm for Independent Probe
First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has a piece titled "Blockchains, What Are They Good For?" It may be the obituary for blockchain, as Krugman outlines all the firms that have abandoned...
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The Spread
ALL OPTIONS CEO ALLARD JAKOBS TALKS ABOUT RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL TRADING FIRM, WHAT HE LOOKS FOR FROM NEW TRADERS, AND MORE IN THIS FULL INTERVIEW WITH JLN’S ALEX TENG
In this Options Discovery interview, Allard Jakobs, the CEO of All Options, sits down with JLN’s Alex Teng.
Big traders flock to US equity options with fleeting lifespans
Observations & Insight If you have not watched Options Discovery with Alex Teng of JLN, you are missing something. This young man, a finance major in his senior year at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is really coming into his own with the interviews he is...