LEAD

SpaceX shares are doing something very unusual. Options traders are taking note
Oliver Renick – CNBC
After an explosive debut and equally impressive crash, SpaceX shares are now, well, hovering in midair. After debuting as the most volatile stock among its large-cap peers, Elon Musk’s astronomic equity hasn’t moved in three weeks, with shares trading in a $10 range around the $140 level. Implied volatility, a rough measure of the costs of options, in SpaceX is now 57, down from over 120 before to its earnings report, ThinkOrSwim data shows. On its debut, it would have been the most volatile stock in the S&P 500. Today, it wouldn’t crack the top 25.
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Why Bond Yields Are the Stock Market’s New Fear Index
Martin Baccardax – Barron’s
Treasury yields are acting as Wall Street’s new “fear gauge,” supplanting traditional risk measures as investors parse the impact of a host of fiscal, monetary, and geopolitical issues that are piling up into the final months of the year.
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Emerging-Market ‘Fear Gauge’ Drops as Korea’s Tech Fever Breaks
Srinivasan Sivabalan – Bloomberg
Volatility in emerging-market stocks is dropping at the fastest pace in more than six years as growing investor caution and tighter government curbs cool demand for the biggest Korean tech companies. The Chicago Board Options Exchange’s measure of implied volatility in developing-nation stocks has fallen almost 11 percentage points this month to 25%, the steepest drop since April 2020. That’s down from peak of 46% in July, when extreme swings in Asian semiconductor stocks fueled demand for protection against an AI-led selloff.
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Prediction Markets and States Clashed, Setting Off a Furious Political Battle; A legal dispute over the future of Kalshi, Polymarket and others has drawn in the Trump administration, the president’s son and nearly every state attorney general.
David Yaffe-Bellany and Sharon LaFraniere – The New York Times
In early March, Donald Trump Jr. made a pitch to a crowd of Republican state attorneys general who had gathered for a three-day retreat at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in New Orleans. Mr. Trump, the president’s eldest son, has repeatedly promised to keep his family’s business interests separate from the work of the administration. But at the closed-door event, he stepped into the middle of a ferocious legal battle over whether states or federal agencies should police prediction markets, a booming new industry in which the Trumps have a financial stake.
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Exclusive | Kalshi and the Weather Co. Join Forces on Climate-Prediction Trades; Trading platform getting input from experts that operate weather app to verify climate-prediction markets
Clara Hudson – The Wall Street Journal
Kalshi said it is looking to broaden its fast-growing weather-predictions markets with meteorological know-how from the Weather Co., which is now verifying outcomes on climate trades. The companies said they want to explore new weather markets for sporting events, for example, citing local ski conditions and marathon race days. Consumers use Kalshi to trade on predictions ranging from what the highest temperature will be in Los Angeles on a given day to whether 2026 will be the hottest year ever. The platform said it chose the Weather Co. because it is one of the most trusted meteorological brands.
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Former CFTC Commissioner: Wall Street has used these financial contracts for decades. Now a goat herder does too
Brian Quintenz – Fortune
A goat herder in Northern California just did something more typical of a Wall Street investment bank – hedge risk with derivatives. Tim Arrowsmith’s labor costs were about to more than triple after a state wage exemption policy expired on June 30. No insurer would cover that risk. No futures contract existed for it. So he paid $50,000 for a contract on Kalshi that pays him $500,000 if Sacramento doesn’t fix the rule by October 1. Now, if Sacramento does fix it, his labor costs stay the same and he’s only lost $50,000. If they don’t, he’ll have $500,000 to cover the increased labor costs. Because of prediction markets, for the first time ever, small businesses like Arrowsmith’s have access to risk management tools that Wall Street has used for years.
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Nvidia’s Robust Results Power Nasdaq, S&P 500 Index
JJ Kinahan – Cboe
Technology stocks are lifting the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 Index in early trading as investors finally get off the sidelines following Nvidia’s robust earnings results and forward guidance. The Nasdaq is up 0.82% and the S&P 500 is advancing by 0.33% after Nvidia’s results lent credence to the deep investments in and remarkable demand for artificial intelligence (AI). The Dow Jones Industrial Average is moving in reverse, off 0.15%.
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Ripple Prime Expands Into Stock Trading With Delta One Business
Katherine Doherty and Yiqin Shen – Bloomberg
Ripple’s prime-brokerage unit launched a so-called delta one business in its first push into the equities market, expanding its offerings for institutional clients trading across traditional and digital markets. With the rollout, the San Francisco-based financial-technology company enables investors to execute total return swaps on US-listed equities, indexes and digital assets, according to Noel Kimmel, president of Ripple Prime. The offering is aimed at a range of market participants including hedge funds, market makers and ETF issuers.
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Marex expands FX and precious metals prime brokerage with new aggregated liquidity platform
Marex
Marex Group Limited (‘Marex’ or the ‘Group’; NASDAQ: MRX), the diversified global financial services platform, has expanded its prime services capabilities with the launch of a proprietary aggregated liquidity platform. This latest development builds on Marex’s wider FX and precious metals capabilities. The platform gives hedge funds, asset managers and professional clients access to multi-dealer FX and precious metals liquidity through a single global prime brokerage relationship.
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Exchanges

How Miami International Holdings (MIAX) is Redefining Derivatives Markets
Soumya Eswaran – Yahoo Finance
Langdon Partners’ Q2 2026 investor letter for the Langdon Global Smaller Companies Strategy revealed a 9.4% return, lagging behind the MSCI World Small Cap Net Index’s 17.0% gain, with a year-to-date return of -10.7% versus the index’s 35.3%. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Despite the improvement, the seven-percentage point lag behind the benchmark is considered disappointing, and year-to-date performance is still below long-term expectations. The market sends signals through share prices, where rising prices indicate improvement and falling prices suggest decline. However, blindly following these signals can be misleading. The portfolio’s performance reflected this, with technology lagging and consumer discretionary stocks performing well. The quarter emphasized that market expectations can shift quickly, demanding careful assessment of a business’s long-term earning potential. Also, check the fund’s top five holdings to see its best picks in 2026.
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CME Group Enters Wind Market with Contracts Designed for Renewable Energy Hedging
CME Group
CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, today announced plans to launch financially-settled Wind Power futures and options in the fourth quarter, pending regulatory review. These new tools will help market participants manage risk associated with wind power generation, extending CME Group’s suite of market-leading energy products.
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CME Group to Launch E-mini Equity Factor Futures on September 21
CME Group
CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, today announced plans to expand its equity product suite with the launch of E-mini Equity Factor futures on September 21, pending regulatory review. Equity factors are performance indicators that can help investors capture growth, navigate volatility and diversify holdings. The new E-mini futures will be available to complement single- and multi-factor strategies, delivering capital efficiencies for risk management and relative value trading.
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Strategy

Markets May Soon Turn Rocky. Time to Trade Schwab Stock.
Steven M. Sears – Barron’s
Get ready for a volatile fall season.
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MISCELLANEOUS

Young investors trust AI more than TV or celebrities
FCA
Four in 5 less experienced investors have used AI for help with investing – and around two-thirds report doing so occasionally or regularly.
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Speaker Johnson blames foreign bettors as prediction markets favor Democrats
Tom Joyce – The Center Square
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson says foreign bettors are helping push prediction markets into giving Democrats better odds of taking over the House. Johnson made the claim while campaigning for Republican House candidates in Pennsylvania last week. Punchbowl News reporter Jake Sherman reported⁠ that Johnson thinks Republicans will “substantially” grow their small House majority in November. Johnson also said prediction markets showing a likely Democratic win are being swayed by foreigners betting on the election. Sherman’s X post about the interview⁠ didn’t say how much foreign money is in the markets. The prediction markets disagree with Johnson’s forecast.
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