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People Profiles, Tech Talk

What’s Next? Buy-Side Traders Plot To Embrace Market-Making

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For exchange-based specialists, prop floor traders and upstairs sell-side market-makers, the notion of buy-side traders putting on the hat of risk-taking market-making is a head scratcher. Sure, there’s a cadre of hedge fund wonks who have interned on a sell-side trading desk, then moved up to Greenwich to grab a slot at one of the many firms run by former trading desk heads who now think they can displace the traditional liquidity providers and do a better job of making markets than their counterparts across the aisle. You know who they are; the ones who get a charge out of bashing their sell-side sales/trader with comments like “Listen, if you can’t fill me right now, I’LL make a two-sided market away from you and prove to you what an idiot you are!”

While sell-side folks scoff at that kind of blasphemy, given the more than two decade process in which electronification has upended equities market structure (and now doing the same to FX, Commodities and UST markets), it shouldn’t surprise anyone that there is growing movement in which buy-side equities traders are plotting to take the model of disintermediation one step further and conjuring up business plans that would have them providing liquidity to the market (via making two-sided markets), instead of their historic role of having a one-sided axe in a particular name.

With that entree, we segue into a fresh-off-the-press column from Shanny Basar at Markets Media “Buy-side Looks to Fill Market-Making Vacuum”….

Nearly half of hedge funds said they would evaluate being market makers in certain securities as banks pull back from some markets, according to a new survey from State Street.

In a report “Let’s Talk Liquidity: Opportunities in a New Market Environment”, State Street surveyed institutional investors on whether market liquidity has deteriorated. Banks have shrunk their balance sheets in response to the increase in capital requirement from regulations such as Basel III, Dodd-Frank and Solvency II and pulled back from some activities. The study had 300 global respondents which included 150 asset owners and 150 asset managers, including 50 hedge funds.

John Bolton, State Street

John Bolton, State Street

John Bolton, global head of thought leadership at State Street, said in a media briefing today that 30% of respondents said the liquidity of their institution’s portfolio had decreased over the past three years, while 28% said it was unchanged. Nearly half, 48%, believe decreased market liquidity is a structural issue and not likely to change.

As a result 49% of respondents believe the role of non-bank institutions as providers of market liquidity will increase, with large pension funds and buy-side firms making prices.

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“43% of hedge funds would evaluate being market makers in certain securities,” added Bolton.

Alex Lawson, head of securities finance, Europe, Middle East and Africa at State Street said at the briefing that in addition to new entrants in market making, the decrease in liquidity will lead to an increase in electronic trading and peer-to-peer connectivity so participants can directly meet their financing needs without the need for intermediaries.

Lawson added: “Regulations have changed the capacity in the market and there are new entrants who have capacity such as Canadian banks and non-banks.”

For example, State Street launched an enhanced custody offering in the US seven years ago and in EMEA three years ago as an alternative to traditional prime brokerage financing as the custodian generates large amounts of internal cash. Clients can borrow and finance securities directly with State Street within a segregated custody account.

Lawson continued that the International Securities Lending conference in June included a panel in which two asset owners, including a sovereign wealth fund, and two hedge funds discussed how they were changing their use of the securities lending market and becoming less reliant on banks.

In order to access more liquidity 48% of institutions said they will increase their use of electronic trading platforms and nearly six in 10 believe the electrification of over-the-counter markets will accelerate over the next three years.

“The industry needs to add capacity so we believe in allowing clients to connect in many ways as possible,” added Lawson. “That could include agency lending, across an electronic platform or through facilitating direct relationships.”

The International Securities Lending Association said in its latest half-yearly market report that there have been significant changes in how institutional investors have been using repo and securities lending markets in the past two years.

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What’s Next? Buy-Side Traders Plot To Embrace Market-Making

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Fixed Income, People Profiles, Tech Talk

Bond Boy Rutter Adds Tackling UST HFT to List of Axes

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Nobody can accuse veteran government bond market broker and fintech poster boy David Rutter of being single-minded. The former Prebon Yamane exec, who later migrated to inter-dealer broker ICAP where he became of head of electronic trading, then did a stint as CEO of fixed income and FX platform BrokerTec, and who more recently has positioned himself as a blockchain empressario via his role as co-founder and head of R3, the industry consortium dedicated to normalizing the use of distributed ledger technology across the financial ecosystem remains determined to set the standard for how UST’s and related futures contracts are electronically traded.  His latest axe is to cut down on the noise and disruption created by high-frequency trading (HFT) tools used by so-called predators that have ‘undermined’ how government bonds are traded in the OTC marketplace.

(Bloomberg) via reporting by Eliza Ronalds-Hannon : David Rutter, the former head of the biggest electronic venue for Treasuries, says his startup will launch a new trading platform called LiquidityEdge Select this week. According to Rutter, a big draw is that it will enable clients to shut off bids and offers from firms they suspect are using hair-trigger algorithms to trade against their orders. He’s enlisted Cantor Fitzgerald to backstop the transactions and signed up about 90 clients, including most of the Treasury market’s 23 primary dealers and several high-speed trading firms.

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David Rutter, Liquidity Edge LLC

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand to fix the inherent disadvantages” on some of the existing venues, Rutter said from his midtown Manhattan office. Going up against certain kinds of speed traders can be “a huge frustration.”

Success is far from guaranteed and there’s considerable debate over whether high-frequency traders, or HFTs, actually do more harm than good. But one thing is undeniable: technological advances and post-crisis bank regulations designed to limit risk-taking are transforming the inner workings of U.S. government debt trading. What’s resulted is a sense of disorder among the more traditional players in the world’s most important bond market.

“The game is changing every day,” said Tom di Galoma, the managing director of government trading and strategy at Seaport Global Holdings. On electronic platforms, the rise of HFTs “concerns anybody else who trades on them.”

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Liquidity Woes

Regardless of who or what is responsible, there are signs U.S. government bonds have gotten harder to trade, even as Treasury Department officials say the $13.7 trillion market is sound and the ability to transact remains robust.

An average of $491 billion of Treasuries have changed hands each day in the past year, down from $600 billion in 2011, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The ability to trade without moving prices has also deteriorated, with another measure indicating Treasuries are now 50 percent more sensitive to price fluctuations than they were five years ago.

At the same time, the market itself has become more prone to sudden shocks, with the Oct. 15, 2014, “flash crash” in Treasury yields the most prominent example. While regulators still haven’t figured out what triggered it, they concluded that automated trading firms made the wild ride that much worse.

All these changes have come as regulations imposed in the aftermath of the financial crisis prompted Wall Street banks to retreat from dealing. Computerized firms have swept in to fill the void.

Electronic platforms like ICAP Plc’s BrokerTec and Nasdaq Inc.’s eSpeed now account for almost half the volume in the Treasury market. Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, and its affiliates also provide trading in Treasuries.

‘Phantom Liquidity’

On the main venues that cater to dealers, eight of the 10 biggest firms by volume last year were non-bank proprietary trading firms, according to Greenwich Associates, a financial services consulting firm. Their influence has led HFT critics to blame computerized traders for providing “phantom liquidity.”

That occurs when those firms use their speed to suddenly change the amount they are willing to buy (or sell) once they detect incoming orders. And it can be costly for slower-footed investors who enter the market thinking there’s a certain amount they can trade, only to have it disappear. In some cases, predatory firms use sophisticated algorithms to decipher a counterparty’s intentions and race ahead of its orders.

The problem was underscored by the Bank for International Settlements, which concluded in a January paper that such strategies have the potential to depress bond-market liquidity. According to Greenwich, less than half the trading activity on inter-dealer platforms last year consisted of “true market making,” which the research firm defined as the willingness of firms to buy and sell a specific security on demand.

“A lot of the intermediaries that had balance sheets to absorb risk and trade, they’re gone,” said Ed Al-Hussainy, senior global interest-rate analyst at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, which oversees $460 billion.

Value Proposition

That’s where Rutter comes in. LiquidityEdge is the first of at least four companies that are planning to start trading platforms by year-end.

LiquidityEdge Select differs from traditional electronic platforms in a few distinct ways. First, clients can pre-select counterparties and trade with them using anonymous user IDs, rather than sending an order into a central market that everyone can see. That maintains confidentiality and enables clients to receive bids and offers only from parties they want. Second, the system allows customers to exclude any streams at any time.

Rutter says this kind of self-policing gives non-bank traders a greater incentive to provide firm orders, while weeding out predatory firms that try to game the system.

LiquidityEdge will also use Cantor Fitzgerald as a central clearing counterparty, settling trades via the Fixed Income Clearing Corp. That means trades are guaranteed even if one party fails to deliver on either payment or bonds. The lack of a such an arrangement precipitated the demise of Direct Match, a Treasuries trading startup that shut down in August.

Diminishing Returns

To be sure, a proliferation of trading platforms could potentially harm liquidity more than help it.

New venues may poach clients from the incumbents — BrokerTec, Rutter’s former employer, and eSpeed — but that may just lead to shallower liquidity across more venues and result in a Treasury market that’s more fractured than it is now. LiquidityEdge Select will be the firm’s second trading venue for Treasuries. It will sit alongside the firm’s one-year-old bilateral platform, LiquidityEdge Direct.

“Is it a case of, the more liquidity pools the merrier?” said Anthony Perrotta, global head of research and consulting at Tabb Group, which specializes in market-structure research. “Some would say yes. At the same time, people’s bandwidth is only so great.”

The Treasury market’s two incumbents, BrokerTec and eSpeed, already have plans to launch competing trading venues later this year.

To continue reading the Bloomberg story, click here

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ETF News

Insurance Co PMs Getting The Memo: ETF Products Make More Sense

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Insurance Co PMs are increasingly getting  “the memo” : Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) Make Sense..

(Pensions & Investments) Exchange-traded funds have permeated almost every corner of the financial markets, but insurance companies have primarily kept their distance. That may be changing.

Though several U.S. insurers have navigated the $2.4 trillion ETF marketplace through variable-annuity products, integration into general accounts has been more recent, many observers say.

According to S&P Dow Jones Indices, insurers have only scratched the surface in their use of ETFs. Analyzing National Association of Insurance Commissioners data through 2015, S&P found that property and casualty, life and health insurers only reported an aggregate $15 billion invested in ETFs for general accounts, but the growth of ETF assets has outpaced overall growth of general account assets, which approached $6 trillion at the end of 2015, according to SNL Financial.

Since 2006, the amount of ETFs held by Insurance Co PMs has increased 146% and grown 14.5% per year, whereas total assets in general accounts have increased 26% in the same period, according to S&P. And, as with many measures of institutional investment in ETFs, year-end holdings are not necessarily indicative of ongoing ETF usage in more temporary functions such as transitions and liquidity management.

S&P projects ETF asset values for insurers to double in five years, in line with Greenwich Associates’ annual institutional ETF survey which indicated 71% of insurers surveyed in 2015 expected to increase their allocation to ETFs.

“It’s clear that the largest ETF providers — BlackRock (BLK), State Street and Vanguard — have been working more closely with the insurance companies,” said Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and mutual fund research at S&P Global Market Intelligence, New York. “But it’s also a size aspect. Smaller insurers with fewer resources have been more willing to use index ETFs compared to larger insurers paying for active management and investment due diligence.”

“Compared to financial advisers and pension managers, insurance general account managers have more assets and greater risk aversion,” added Mr. Rosenbluth. “The ETF education model is different.”

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More recently those “educational” conversations are including the growing asset base and efficacy of fixed-income ETFs, said Steve Mickle, a director of institutional sales and trading with WallachBeth Capital LLC in San Francisco. He said that insurers have become the agency brokerage firm’s fastest growing clientele. “They see the size and liquidity of some of the earliest and most foundational fixed-income ETFs as utility products, ones that work for parking cash or interim benchmarking,” said Mr. Mickle.

According to WallachBeth, 132 fixed-income ETFs have been assessed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners for risk-based capital treatment that could potentially be more favorable than common stock (as ETFs are traditionally reported).

“The NAIC designation is an added feature,” said Bill Best, managing director at VanEck in New York, “but some of the largest insurers are still working through the products and mechanics of ETFs.”

Josh Penzner, managing director at BlackRock Inc. (BLK), has observed insurers testing the waters of fixed-income ETFs, particularly to manage cash liquidity and investment exposures as a placeholder before purchasing bonds that have been “and will continue to be” the core of insurance general account portfolios.

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MarketsMuse blog post title Insurance Co PMs are increasingly getting  “the memo” : Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) Make Sense..

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Global Macro Strategy, People Profiles

Circus Comes To Town-Global Macro Guru Heads to Hofstra

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MarketsMuse inhouse political pundits are headed to Hempstead, NY, home of Hofstra University where the Circus Comes to Town disguised as the first tranche of 2016 US Presidential debates. While our inhouse politicos battle the LIE rush hour traffic in effort to get a ring-side seat for the Ringling Bros Bake-Off circus, our curators pass the ball for pre-debate color courtesy of global macro guru Neil Azous, principal of macro think tank Rareview Macro and publisher of Sight Beyond Sight.  Below extract first appeared in yesterday’s weekend edition of FinAlternatives.com

 

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Neil Azous, Rareview Macro

Humble in Hofstra…One Debate an Election Can Make
by Neil Azous

Tonight’s U.S. Presidential debate, infamously coined the “Humbling in Hofstra” by Mark Cuban, has the potential to reshape the world. Unlike the adage “one stock a market does not make,” our view is that “one debate an election can make.”

At the top-down investment level, this event will dictate asset prices over the next 72 hours more than any other catalyst. For the reasons we will layout below, our bias is to be short risk assets or hedged going into the event.

Additionally, the event will kick-off a greater rebalancing exercise at the sector, industry, and single stock level which might take a few weeks to find an equilibrium.

The Debate Setup

Firstly, this is an advertiser’s dream as over 100 million people are expected to tune in, the largest ever for a US Presidential debate.

The debate will run from 9 to 10:30 p.m. ET at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y, can watch the debate on C-SPAN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.

It will also be streamed live on various social networks. That way, the millennials who cut-the-cord from networks have an opportunity to follow along as well.

Secondly, it is important to recognize the extreme view that non-US citizens take on Donald. J. Trump. They view Trump in a similar vein as the Dear Leader in North Korea – that is, highly concerned over the prospects of his ascent on the world stage and having access to weapons of mass destruction.

The key point here is that if there is going to be a change in viewpoints on Trump, it will be for the better, as it cannot get much worse internationally.

Finally, the political strategists, already bruised from being wrong on Trump for 18 months, are struggling to pinpoint what a win or loss looks like for either candidate in advance of tomorrow night’s debate.

As evidenced by the widespread views expressed on the various Sunday morning talk shows this morning, they are all soul-searching at the moment.

The conclusion, especially after a surprise ‘Brexit’ outcome, is that paid forecasters, political strategists, media persona, and politicians are worthless in shaping sentiment and helping investors construct their portfolios.

Our View

Allow us to put one simple view forward.

Continue reading →

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Tech Talk

FinTech Fever Spreads Across Globe; Government-Sponsored Investments Surge

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FinTech Fever is spreading across the globe, as government-sponsored and regional private equity investments in financial technology startups and fast-growing initiatives is becoming the cool kid place-to-be.

MarketsMuse fintech curators profile a crisp selection of this week’s latest stories out of London, Abu Dhabi, Jakarta, India and Russia..

Abu Dhabi Financial Services Regulatory Authority Bets More on FinTech

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has formed a new partnership with GlassQube Business Centre Services (GQC) today to further enhance the Financial Technology (“FinTech”) eco-system in Abu Dhabi. This agreement provides a framework for collaboration, co-operation and consultation between the FSRA and GQC focusing on technology development and innovation in financial services. It enables both parties to share knowledge, exchange expertise and join efforts on initiatives that will support the development of the FinTech ecosystem in Abu Dhabi and the wider region. To continue this story, click here

Barclays looking at India as a FinTech innovation hub

Ram Gopal barclays fintech
Ram Gopal

British lender Barclays is keen on being a research and development engine for financial services industry and is making significant investments in this space, according to Barclays India Chief Operating Officer Ram Gopal. Barclays launched the Rise programme here in June. This is its sixth site globally, following London, Manchester, New York, Cape Town and Tel Aviv hubs. (Reuters)

“Globally, there has been some disruption in financial services in recent times… as a response the industry is investing in innovation,” Gopal told PTI here without disclosing the quantum of investment in this.

“Barclays is serious about being a research and development engine for financial services, and is investing in this space,” he added.

Speaking about India as a hub for fintech innovation for the bank, he said Barclays has over 29,000 people employed directly or through its partners, and a third of the group’s executive committee are Indians. “There is a buzz in India,” he said. To continue reading, please click here

“Fintech fever and the focus on financial technology startups is perhaps the most active sector across the private placement industry,” according to Amram Migdal, a case researcher for Harvard University and an advisor to PPM Group Plc, a professional service firm specializing in private placement memorandum document preparation. Added Migdal, “The value propositions, whether via more innovative and more cost-effective payment processing applications, to cyber security-centric distributed ledger applications powered by blockchain technology is no longer the domain of Silicon Valley, this is a global opportunity for savvy start-ups and for fintech-flavored merchant banks including the likes of boutiques such as SenaHill Parnters.”

Russia hosts largest blockchain, FinTech hackathon backed by Life-SREDA VC

The WhiteMoney project, a system of payments between legal entities based on the distributed blockchain network, emerged as a winner in InspiRussia hackathon – touted as the largest fintech event in the country. InspiRussia is a continuation of InspirAsia established by Life.SREDA VC, a Singapore-based fintech-focussed venture capital fund. The event held at the Innopolis University was also backed by Tatfondbank, Sberbank (Sberbank Tech), Microsoft and QIWI. The fintech-focussed event featured developments in sectors such as online debt transactions, payment processing technologies, blockchain and distributed ledger initiatives.
Read the entire story from  DealStreetAsia via this link

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Indonesia Presses Forward with FinTech

The central bank will launch a financial technology (fintech) office next month, one that would be designated to facilitate fintech players to build networks and innovate. The financial office will oversee the ‘regulatory sandbox’, a space where startups can test their services before launching them for consumers. The sandbox concept has been adopted in many countries to foster the booming fintech industry.

“Next month we will launch a fintech office. BI will establish a special task force that will coordinate with other fintech offices,” Bank Indonesia (BI) deputy governor Ronald Waas said in Semarang on Saturday.

A sandbox is used by business players to test innovative products or business models. It is a tool for regulators to facilitate innovation and to test policies slated to be issued.

Earlier, BI and the Finance Services Authority (OJK) unveiled plans to issue rules by the end of 2017 to regulate fintech players’ activities so they could operate safely as the burgeoning industry has facilitated an estimated Rp 40 trillion (US$3.04 billion) in transactions over the past two years.

The plan comes as fintech startups involved in payment services have begun to mushroom in Indonesia, offering e-wallets, online payment services and interbank transactions free of charge.

The International Financial Stability Board divided fintech into four categories according to innovation type, namely payments, clearing and settlement; deposits, loans and capital raising, investment and risk management and market provisioning. (ags)

To continue courtesy of the Jakarta Post, please click here

HSBC Fixing To Build London FinTech Hub; Wanted: 50,000 sq ft office space in Hipster ‘Hood

HSBC Holdings Plc is seeking office space in technology-focused London neighborhoods including Shoreditch to bolster its fintech capabilities, according to two people with knowledge of the move.

Europe’s largest bank hired real estate broker CBRE Group Inc. to find 50,000 square feet (4,600 square meters) of space, almost the same size as an American football field, in areas including Old Street and Shoreditch, the people said. The neighborhoods are home to a cluster of startups and a nexus of hipster culture. The office will be focused on digital growth at the bank, the people said.

HSBC would join other firms that already operate technology-focused offshoots in east London neighborhoods, such as Barclays Plc’s so-called fintech accelerator in Whitechapel. While the bank in February decided to keep its headquarters in London rather than move to Hong Kong, it’s expanding out of its 45-floor skyscraper in Canary Wharf. HSBC plans to move 1,000 retail bank workers to Birmingham, Britain’s second-biggest city, to cut costs and separate its U.K. consumer operations from the investment bank. To continue reading the Bloomberg LP story, click here

 

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Tech Talk

Land of Rising Sun Embraces FinTech Sector; Japan’s Biggest Banks Open Wallets

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The FinTech Sector is red hot now in Japan as Land of Rising Sun Banks now looking to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into fintech start-ups after the abolition of a law that prevented them from owning more than 5 per cent of a technology company.

(FT) 25 September The changes are part of a national effort to push into the fintech sector and pursue investments in financial technology startups, highlighting fears in Tokyo that Silicon Valley could decimate Japan’s banking sector as it did the country’s mobile phone industry.

“Japanese institutions are concerned that a Google Bank or Facebook Bank will conquer Japan,” said Naoyuki Iwashita, head of the FinTech Centre at the Bank of Japan.

It means that Japan could become a big new source of funding for start-ups, especially in Asia, that are experimenting with technologies such as blockchain or artificial intelligence.

Yasuhiro Sato, chief executive of Mizuho, told a conference in Tokyo last week that Japanese banks had been constrained by regulators wanting to preserve old, but tried-and-tested, IT systems.

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Yasuhiro Sato fintech
Yasuhiro Sato (photo courtesy of WSJ)

“I think [regulators], especially the Japanese Financial Services Agency, are now changing their thoughts on that,” he told the FinSum conference, organised by the FSA and Nikkei, owner of the Financial Times.

The change in the law means banks can ignore a 5 per cent limit on stakes in non-financial companies if their purpose is to apply information technology to finance.

The FSA is considering a further legal change that would make it easier for fintech companies to engage in regulated financial activities. “In order to obtain more technological advances from outside participants,” said Mr Sato. “That’s the reason why the banking law will now quite likely be changing.”

Mizuho established a presence in Silicon Valley three years ago and this year added an innovation-focused office in New York. Mr Sato said the rule changes would accelerate that. “We have created a specific team, which is the innovation product team, to make significant investment in venture companies. We are sending many many persons to the US.”

Rakuten, the Japanese ecommerce group, has launched a $100m fund to invest in fintech companies and SBI Holdings, a financial group, raised a ¥30bn ($299m) fintech venture fund earlier this year.

Other global banks have opened outposts in California. BBVA, the Spanish bank, is one of the most aggressive, acquiring Simple, an Oregon-based digital lender in 2014, and investing in Prosper, the San Francisco-based peer-to-peer platform. It also set up a venture capital company, Propel Ventures, to pursue investments in other start-ups. SenaHill is a leading merchant bank boutique specializing in fintech initiatives and focused on fast growth companies that are producing revenue and/or startups that have at least one year of business operating metrics.

To continue reading the story Land of Rising Sun Embraces FinTech Sector from FT.com, please click here

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Tech Talk

What’s Next? Reuters Gets Redi; EMS Icon Acquired by Market Data Legend

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Reuters execs say “Why build an expensive EMS platform to integrate with your buy-side focused analytics platform when you can buy one that already has captive customers?” If it’s the right price, then the answer  would seem to favor Buy v Build! That is apparently the calculus of market data provider  Thomson Reuters, which just announced they will acquire 100% of Redi Global Technologies.

Below coverage courtesy of our friends at MarketsMedia.com.

The market data provider plans to integrate Redi’s at-trade capabilities with into its Eikon pre-trade financial-analysis desktop

Market data provider Thomson Reuters has just moved into the trade-execution space with its agreement to purchase buy-side execution management system provider Redi Global Technologies.

Although both parties declined to disclose the terms of the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, Redi CEO Rishi Nangalia stated, “This is a 100% acquisition by Thomson Reuters and Redi’s existing owners will no longer have an equity stake in the company.”

“This deal was as much about technology, clients, reputation as it was domain expertise that sits with the Redi employees,” added Michael Chin, managing director, global head of equities at Thomson Reuters.

Most Industry watchers see the acquisition playing an important part in Thomson Reuters’ technology and trading strategy. One EMS sector market muse commented “InteractiveBrokers CEO Thomas Peterffy is probably peeing his pants from laughing too hard. Thomson Reuters has a history of bungling acquisitions.”

“Redi has a strong buy-side/hedge fund footprint, which will help Thomson Reuters increase its presence with that increasingly important demographic allowing Thomson Reuters to expand its data, distribution, and analytics business,” said Larry Tabb, founder and CEO of industry analyst firm Tabb Group. “Also given that Redi is not a broker and helping investors connect to their brokers, the acquisition will help reinforce the relationship that Thomson Reuters has on the sell side.”

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The two vendors already share many buy-side clients, according to Nangalia.

“However there is less overlap in the user base,” he added. “Eikon users typically are portfolio managers and analysts while RediPlus users are more often traders.”

Thomson Reuters plans on integrating the Redi EMS with its Eikon platform in a phased approach by moving each platform onto a common architecture through their respective upgrade cycles.

“We are not planning to re-write Redi into Eikon in the near term,” said Chin.

“There is no forced timeline to deliver an integrated product, said Nangalia. “It will be client feedback and prudent discussions along the way that will drive those technology decisions.”

Neither companies expect that the deal will result in any redundancies for Redi’s approximately 120 employees.

“The idea is to invest and grow the business,” said Nangalia. “The synergies are not planned from a people perspective. They are from other cost areas. This is an investment thesis and not a cost-cutting thesis.”

From a real-estate perspective, Redi will move from its corporate headquarters in Manhattan’s Wall Street neighborhood and other global offices into existing Thomson Reuters facilities.

“To achieve and integrated team, we want the teams in each city to be next to each other,” Nangalia added. “Obviously, Thomson Reuters’ offices are much large than ours, so we will be moving into their offices and integrating with their financial equities teams as quickly as is practical.”

Equities market-maker Spear, Leeds & Kellogg developed the RediPlus EMS in 1992, which Goldman Sachs later acquired in 2001. The investment bank then spun off the EMS vendor in 2013 with the collaboration of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citadel and investment funds associated with Lightyear Capital.

To continue reading, please revert to MarketsMedia.com

 

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ETF News, Strike Price

Options Mart CBOE Rumored to Merge with BATS Exchange

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Following a decade of new exchange launches, which led to a series of aggressive fee competition to attract order flow and elevated the ‘pay-for-order-flow’ game, the more current trend towards consolidation, fueled by an industry-wide race to zero fees and commissions is sparking rumors that the CBOE and BATS are planning to marry..This on the heels of the still uncompleted deal between Deutsche Boerse and London Stock Exchange (LSE), a transaction that according to one MarketsMuse “has been put on hold pending further impact analysis” of this late summer’s BREXIT vote.”

(Traders Magazine)-CBOE Holdings’ reported talks to acquire Bats Global Markets would be the latest in a long line of exchange tie-ups, with one common denominator: the drive to have more trades execute under the same roof.

“Exchanges are a scale game,” said Brad Bailey, research director at Celent’s securities and investments practice. “Running exchanges in a regulatory, market-structure-complex world is tough. There is tremendous operational leverage available to bigger, more complex exchanges.”

Yesterday, Bloomberg News reported merger talks between CBOE and Bats, citing people familiar with the situation. A deal could be announced within weeks, thought it still may not happen, according to the report.

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CBOE’s eponymous options exchange is the largest of 14 in the U.S., with market share of 26.5% this month, according to OCC data. Chicago-based CBOE has a virtual stranglehold in the index-options business via its dominant CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) product.

Bats, which purchased rival exchange operator Direct Edge in 2014 and itself went public earlier this year, runs the BZX and EDGX options exchanges, which have a combined market share of about 12%. Bats also operates four of the 13 U.S. equity exchanges, with a combined market share of about 20%.

Equity and options exchange operator Nasdaq bought options bourse International Securities Exchange earlier this year. In the equities space, IntercontinentalExchange bought New York Stock Exchange in 2013. In Europe, Deutsche Boerse and London Stock Exchange are planning to merge. And there have been a host of exchange mergers over the past half-decade that have been discussed or proposed but ultimately didn’t happen.

“Think about the size and scale across asset classes of most exchanges,” Bailey told Markets Media. “ICE gobbled up NYSE, DB/LSE are attempting a marriage despite the complexities that Brexit has added to that equation.”

MarketsMuse editors are gearing up to profile ‘What’s Next?’ Anti-Trust Fever Sweeps Regulators as Exchanges Consolidate to Revert To Predatory Pricing Model..” To read the entire story CBOE Rumored to Merge with BATS Exchange from Traders Mag, click here

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Fixed Income

Land of the Rising None; Fed is Fed Up re Rates Talk

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The Fed is Fed Up re Rates Talk…or at least they must be, according to MarketsMuse pundits who have frequently guessed wrong within the context of how much and when the FOMC will decide to upend the current interest rate regime and return to normal. Below excerpt is courtesy of expert debt capital market commentary published 21 Sept 2016 under the banner “Quigley’s Corner”–a daily note delivered to institutional fixed income portfolio managers and Fortune corporate treasurer clients of Mischler Financial Group, a minority broker-dealer and the sell-side’s oldest boutique investment bank/institutional brokerage owned/operated by service-disabled veterans…

It was a no print day today as corporate debt issuers respected both the impact of the BoJ and FOMC.

dewey moment mischler debt market Not so fast my friends…..not so fast!  It’s not exactly a “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment. Still, let’s call it like it is folks – I did say “the next best thing to having tomorrow’s newspaper today is the ‘QC’”.  Then on Monday, September 19th and alluding to today’s BoJ and FOMC rate decisions, I wrote, “Fed Holds; BoJ Cuts Rate and Then Some.” Well, I guess it’s not “tomorrow’s newspaper today” but I still think it’s the “next best thing to it.” The Fed Held, the BoJ introduced new fringy though convoluted easing details (“and then some”) but the BoJ kept rates unchanged.  Two out of three isn’t bad, but that’s why it’s “the next best thing.” If I played baseball, I’d be in the Hall of Fame with a .666 average.  Joking aside, a Fed that infers raising rates by December should have hiked rates today, but they didn’t. This is more of the same readers.  Look for Fed members – both voting and non-voting – to continue giving speeches and appearing on television to opine about the rate flux that has restricted so many from doing so much.  The street is the leader; the Fed is the ultimate laggard.  It’s how it is.  Today was more of the same. No surprise at all.  The government should consider issuing a gag order on any and all Fed-speak in between meetings for all members, both voting and non-voting.  They only confuse the situation and shock markets.

First up, let’s look at what the BoJ did while we were in REM sleep this morning:

A Big Red Zero – Land of the Rising “None” as BoJ Keeps Rates at <0.1%> & Introduces More Shifts to PolicyBoJ Mischler Debt Market Comment

Central Banks from the FOMC to the BOE and from the ECB to the BoJ all seem to be pointing to the downside risks to continued rate cuts while at the same time highlighting that monetary policy needs to be substantially accommodative while calling on governments to share more of the economic burdens. Here’s what’s clear: growth is anemic to non-existent, inflation unchanged to nowhere, accommodative policies are manifesting themselves in new policy twists and turns and big government needs to get more involved.  Hmmm…..sounds like things aren’t quite working out, eh?

 

Here are the talking points from this morning’s BoJ announcement:

 

o   The BoJ left interest rates at its still record low <0.1%>.

o   Committed to intervene until inflation reaches 2% and remains stable above that level.

o   Will cap 10-year yields at 0.00% by continuing to buy 10yr JGBs implying that the BoJ must continue intervening to prevent borrowing costs from rising and to ensure that it can borrow for a decade for free.

o   Changed its policy from a focus on a base money target to controlling the yield curve.

o   Pledged to maintain its government bond-buying in line with ¥80 trillion annually while buying fewer long-dated maturities hoping to pump up long-term interest rates thereby helping banks boost profits. There was no expansion of its current quantitative easing program.

 

Will this new approach be effective?  Only time will tell.  It certainly is a shift in monetary policy to control the yield curve. It is NOT a bazooka by any stretch and more like “fiddling around the edges.”  As for the 2.00% target? Folks, we all know that’s a loooong way off. Market participants have a lot of questions with many sharing that the “BoJ should’ve just cut rates again.” Equity markets loved the news. The DOW closed up 163, the S&P was in the black 23, the VIX compressed over 2.5 and CDX27 tightened 3.2 bps.

“Fed” Up with Rates, FOMC Holds; November Increase Has No Chance Pre- Election and Santa Claus is Coming to Town…with Coal?

The Fed held rates albeit the subsequent press conference was more optimistic, if one can call it that, saying the economy appeared “slightly balanced” and “the case for an increase in the fed funds rate strengthened but decided, for the time being to wait for further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives.”  You all know about the myriad global event risk factors out there.  There are so many that on any given day in our inextricably global-linked world economy, should one or several of them get worse, which is entirely plausible-to-likely, the Fed can skirt around a hike by once again pointing to global events, as they have in the past, to justify standing down.  In fact, in its statement Chair Yellen said, “we will closely monitor inflation and global developments.” What’s more, the next FOMC meeting will be held on November 1srt and 2nd and is not associated with a Summary of Economic Projections or a press conference by Yellen. It is highly unlikely that the Fed raises rates in November given that the meeting will take places 6 days before one our nation’s most tumultuous and raucous elections.  Last year saw one rate hike to close out 2015 at its December meeting.  Santa Claus will be coming to town early at the year’s last meeting of 2016 held December 13th-14th …………..but don’t be surprised to find coal in the stocking.

Folks, Q3 is about over.  You hear that sound?   That’s the sound of trucks?  They’re backing up to print between now and Election Day – BIG TIME. 12 IG issuers are in the pipeline with a whole lot of M&A deals getting closer.

Here’s All You Want and Need to Know About Today’s Fed Decision

(to continue reading, please visit the Mischler Financial Group Debt Market Commentary page

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Global Macro Strategy, People Profiles

If History Is Any Guide-Sell Every Rally, Now! Says Global Macro Muse..

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If History is Any Guide….more than one “markets muse” should be running for cover, faster than if they found themselves strolling the streets of NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood this past Saturday evening. And, one global macro muse is extending that warning..

Stock market technicians, i.e. those who hang their hats on technical analysis and the notion that history tends to repeats during select times of the year should take note of the following statistics; if history is any guide, professional traders should sell every rally, now!

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Neil Azous, Rareview Macro

Why? Aside from the fact that the month of September is notorious for market tops and arguably, the most damaging sell-offs in US equity markets followed soon thereafter, the month of October in years ’29, ’87, ’91, , ’01* ‘ and 08 to cite just a few), professional chartists are reminded by a illuminating observation courtesy of global macro guru Neil Azous in the a.m. notes published by Rareview Macro’s “Sight Beyond Sight”:

Gann Day: Per legendary Wall Street trader W.D. Gann, September 22nd is the date markets top more frequently than any day of year. This year that date coincides with the Fed and BoJ meetings on Sep 21st. Stock Trader’s Almanac : S&P 500 down 22 of 26 during week after September options expiration, average loss 1.08% (Full Stats HERE, @AlmanacTrader)

S&P 500 Seasonality: This week is the 38th week of the year. This is the worst week of the year since 1950 and the S&P 500 has been down 7 of past 8 years. Last week was Sept Options Expiration. Since 1990, the week after this has higher only 4 times past 26 years. Higher only 15.4%, lowest for any week of year.

Those having glasses half full, or those whose glasses use bifocal lenses might argue “even a broken clock is right twice a day, that doesn’t mean lightening strikes at the same place at the same time..” will discount the above. On the other hand, “Many People Are Saying” that those who are familiar with fall stock market falls will want to follow Azous on Twitter, or better and smarter still, those who are global macro aficionados should grab themselves a subscription to Sight Beyond Sight by clicking this link.

 

 

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ETF News, Fixed Income, Tech Talk

Virtu Says NO to Corporate Bond ETF Market-Making

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Virtu Says NO to Corporate Bond ETF risk-taking; Top Market-Maker Opines “Unable to Hedge ETF Constituents Due To Limited Liqudity”

During the better part of three years, MarketsMuse Fixed Income curators have often pointed to concerns expressed by market professionals who argue that the unfettered growth of corporate bond ETFs are masking the inevitable likelihood that once interest rates begin to rise, buy side fund managers fearful of mark-downs in their corporate bond positions will push the ‘sell button’ en masse to limit the P&L hit. Those in the camp expressing such concerns, which includes Virtu Financial, one of the most successful electronic market-makers in the industry, believe that such a mass exodus will wreak havoc on the now $8.4 trillion US corporate bond ecosystem* (*data according to Sifma), where new issuance for 2016 has just surpassed 1 Trillion dollars, and is a marketplace that since 2011 alone, has grown nearly 50% in terms of notional value and number of outstanding issues.

Per one senior market risk expert familiar with the thinking at Virtu, “Their’s isn’t simply a view typically attributed to academics, who have increasingly warned and have been equally derided by ETF lobbyists for suggesting a secondary market meltdown in corporate bond ETF products is inevitable when rates rise. Instead, Virtu has concluded that for those who make a business of ‘taking the other side’ of corporate bond exchange-traded funds, whether investment grade (e.g $LQD) or high yield themed (e.g $HYG), will find themselves playing a game of musical chairs, but there will be no chairs available for anyone when the music stops and traders will find themselves unable to find any liquidity in the respective ETF underlying constituents.”

Below opening excerpt from mainstream media outlet Bloomberg LP and reported by Bloomberg reporter Annie Massa:

One of the world’s largest electronic market makers won’t touch increasingly popular corporate bond ETF products because the underlying securities are too hard to trade.

Although New York-based Virtu Financial Inc. buys and sells everything from stocks to government bonds and futures on more than 235 exchanges around the world, it shuns products linked to corporate bonds like the $15 billion iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF. The reason, according to Chief Executive Officer Doug Cifu, is that it’s too hard for Virtu to precisely hedge the trades.

“It’s definitely concerning you don’t have full and unfettered access to the underlying,” Cifu said, speaking at a Security Traders Association conference in Washington on Thursday. “That’s troubling.”

During the fourth quarter of 2015, TABB Group interviewed key US corporate bond market participants across buy-side, sell-side and specialized trade service providers.Across all segments covered within the survey, participants’ responses reflected dim expectations for liquidity available in the US corporate bond market for 2016. Apart from the threat of a “large scale macro crisis,” the most serious threat that participants identified was the ongoing decline in immediacy (balance sheet) provided by dealers.

Worldwide assets in bond ETFs have surged in recent years, jumping fivefold since January 2010 to about $600 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. About 88 million shares of fixed-income ETFs have traded daily in the U.S. during the past 30 days, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Other market makers including Citadel Securities and Susquehanna do trade the ETFs, but Virtu’s absence is notable given how dominant the company is in other areas. Cifu said Virtu does trade ETFs containing U.S. Treasuries, including the ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury.

To read a Bloomberg Markets profile of Virtu, click here.

Virtu’s strategy involves arbitraging price difference in related assets, quickly entering and exiting the positions. With fixed-income ETFs, the company is concerned it can’t get access to the related bonds fast enough. Market makers with longer trading time frames may be less reluctant. Virtu’s line of thinking echoes worries elsewhere in the industry. Shares of the funds are often easier to trade than their underlying bonds, potentially posing a risk if there’s a sudden rush for the exit.

To continue reading, please click here

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People Profiles, Tech Talk

What’s Next? A Blockchain-Powered ATS for Equities

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“What’s Next? Well, for those familiar with Patrick Byrne, the controversial and innovative founder of Overstock.com, one of the first online retailers to embrace the use of bitcoins, it should not be a surprise that Overstock’s chief honcho would ‘get the joke’ and realize its all about the underlying technology that powers cryptocurrency applications, known as distributed ledger. While bitcoin currency continues to encounter challenges in terms of mass embracement, the real grease that makes the makes the wheels turn is under the hood. With that, Overstock subsidiary “T0” (T-zero) is taking a page from both the industry consortium formed by R3 and the Senahill-backed Symbiont –both of which target institutional capital markets usage–and aiming it’s own sights on retail investors by setting to launch an equities-centric Alternative Trading System aka ATS powered by their own blockchain formula.

A distributed ledger is a consensus of replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data geographically spread across multiple sites, countries, and/or institutions.
A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger, comprised of unchangable, digitally recorded data in packages called blocks.
Rob Daly of MarketsMedia (not related to MarketsMuse) provides the scoop..

Online retailer Overstock.com expects trading to begin on its blockchain-based alternative trading system before the end of the year, according to company officials.

The ATS will be operated by Overstock.com subsidiary TO as part of the company’s Medici Project, and it will only handle trades in the company stock, at least at first. So while it’s not an immediate competitive threat to the existing field of 13 U.S. stock exchanges plus several dozen ATSs, the initiative will be closely watched as a gauge of the potential of distributed-ledger technology in capital markets.

The ATS will write completed trades to its blockchain instead of routing them to the National Securities Clearing Corp., a subsidiary of Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., for clearing.

Overstock.com plans to prime the liquidity on the ATS through a new issue of corporate shares to existing shareholders the day before trading commences on the new trading venue.

judd bagley blockchain ATS
Judd Bagley

T0 officials plan to formally announce its partnership with a broker-dealer on Sept. 12. “For those who want to trade on the ATS, they will have to create an account with the broker-dealer,” said Overstock’s man-in-charge Judd Bagley, who declined to name the brokerage firm.

If you’ve got a hot tip, a bright idea, or if you’d like to get visibility for your firm through MarketsMuse via subliminal content marketing, advertorial, blatant shout-out, spotlight article, etc., please reach out to our Senior Editor

Investors will be able to select from multiple “very vanilla” order types, which are still in development, he added. T0 may use a so-called maker-taker rebate model to encourage liquidity, but officials have not made a final decision.

The new trading venue is a mix of internally developed technology and the technology T0 acquired with its purchase of order-routing firm SpeedRoute in October 2015. T0 built its matching engine internally as well as the necessary interfaces to the rest of the U.S. equity marketplace.

The company, in conjunction with Bay-area consultancy PeerNova, also developed a proprietary blockchain architecture for the ATS instead of using Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Ripple.

To continue reading the story from MarketsMedia, please click here

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ETF News, Tech Talk

What’s Next? A Fintech ETF!

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Just when you were about to ask “What’s the next type of exchange-traded fund that nobody else has come up with?, PureFunds has launched a fintech ETF!

If you’re not familiar with the phrase ‘fintech’, you’re likely not qualified to put assets into this latest exchange-traded fund that specializes in one of the hottest trends-financial technology companies.

Caveat: According to 4 Pinocchio star winner Donald Trump, “Many people are saying..” that “fintech” is a phrase associated with start-up companies focused on delivering innovative software applications used to streamline financial industry centric services. The fact is that ‘fintech’ is a term that is applied to the full gamut of companies that specialize in financial industry technology solutions, as evidenced by the criteria for constituents within PureFunds latest ETF product, Solcative Fintech ETF (FINQ).

“FINQ allows investors to invest in this fast-growing segment of the industry without having to select individual companies. The rules- based index approach allows us to capture exposure to companies at the forefront of innovation in the financial industry.”

But don’t just take our word for it, below is the press release that just crossed the tape..

SUMMIT, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ETF Managers Group in partnership with PureFunds today debuted their newest fund, the PureFunds Solactive FinTech ETF (FINQ).

“FINQ allows investors to invest in this fast-growing segment of the industry without having to select individual companies. The rules- based index approach allows us to capture exposure to companies at the forefront of innovation in the financial industry.”

Trading on the NASDAQ, the fintech ETF “FINQ” invests in global companies disrupting the multi-trillion dollar financial industry by offering technology-based solutions designed to revolutionize how financial industry firms interact with their customers and run their businesses.

The fund’s holdings include technology services companies that principally derive revenue from the sale of financial-related information, financial data analysis services, financial services software tools or platforms or web-based financial services. Each company in the fund and its corresponding index – 31 in total – has a minimum market cap of $200 million.

“Financial technology is a rapidly growing subsector of the overall financial services industry, and our fintech ETF FINQ seeks to tap into the potential investment opportunity created by these disruptive, forward- thinking companies,” Andrew Chanin, CEO of PureFunds, said. “FINQ allows investors to invest in this fast-growing segment of the industry without having to select individual companies. The rules- based index approach allows us to capture exposure to companies at the forefront of innovation in the financial industry.”

If you’ve got a hot tip, a bright idea, or if you’d like to get visibility for your firm through MarketsMuse via subliminal content marketing, advertorial, blatant shout-out, spotlight article, etc., please reach out to our Senior Editor

Sam Masucci founder and CEO of ETF Managers Group said, “The idea behind PureFunds ETFs is to make available – in a single diversified investment – unique areas within markets that have been greatly enhanced by technology. Technology allows businesses to offer new innovative services that can positively affect a consumer’s experience.”

FINQ will cost 68 basis points* and will be equal weighted. It joins PureFunds’ suite of products, BIGD, GAMR, HACK, IFLY, IPAY, SILJ and IMED, which also begins trading today on the NASDAQ.

* A basis point is one hundredth of a percent

About PureFunds

As an innovator of ETF concepts, PureFunds® strives to provide the market with easy access to in-demand industries through pure-play ETFs. We are a New York City-based research and business management firm, serving as the Manager and/or Sponsor to the suite of PureFunds ETFs. We aim to provide investors with tactical ETFs that may offer attractive investment opportunities in sectors that traditionally have been difficult to invest in. With vast experience in global equity investing and ETF trading, PureFunds has a refreshing and alternative insight into the growing world of ETFs. We have constructed our distinct suite of products in an attempt to meet the needs of investors and traders alike.

About ETF Managers Group

ETF Managers Group, LLC is a leading Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) private label services company. ETF Managers Group offers a full range of ETF product services to the asset management community including commodity pool ETPs as well as both active and passive ETF funds. The services provided include product operations, regulatory, financial and compliance management. ETF Managers Group offers active marketing and dedicated wholesale services for all ETF product types and index construction.

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Fixed Income, Global Macro Strategy, People Profiles

Strong Demand For Yield-Outsize Demand For IG Corporate Bonds

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MarketsMuse Fixed Income Curators have been keeping tabs on the seemingly insatiable and outsize demand for yield and in particular, the demand for IG Corporate Bonds aka  investment grade corporate debt. With that, we roll to opening excerpt of Aug 9 notes from “Quigley’s Corner”, the financial industry award-winning commentary produced by Ron Quigley, Head of Fixed Income Syndicate for boutique investment bank/institutional brokerage Mischler Financial Group, the securities industry’s oldest minority broker-dealer owned and operated by Service-Disabled Veterans..

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Ron Quigley, Mischler Financial Group

Today things slowed down a bit for the IG dollar DCM but it was still a formidable line-up. We featured 5 IG Corporate Debt issuers that priced 9 tranches between them totaling $7.66b.  The Asian Development Bank priced its expected two-part 3s/10s new issue in the SSA space that totaled $1.3b bringing today’s all-in IG tally to 6 issuers, 11 tranches for $8.96b.

WTD we have now priced 85% of the syndicate midpoint average forecast for the week or $19.46b vs. $22.80b.
MTD we eclipsed the syndicate estimate for the month after only 7 sessions or $68.41b vs. $61.13b.

The big deal of the day in the IG Corporate Debt space was Duke Energy Corp. $3.75b 3-part 5s/10s/30s issued to finance a portion of costs in connection with Duke’s acquisition of Piedmont Natural Gas Company Inc.   Last week Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) announced it mandated Barclays, Credit Suisse, Mizuho, MUFG Securities and UBS as joint leads to arrange investor calls after which a transaction could soon follow.  As has been written in the “QC” pipeline for a while, on Friday, January 22nd, shareholders of Piedmont Natural Gas (A2/A) voted to approve the Company’s acquisition by Duke Energy (A3/BBB+).  66.8% of voting shares supported the acquisition.  In late October 2015, Duke Energy, (A3/BBB+) the nation’s largest utility, announced that it will buy Piedmont Natural Gas (A2/A) for $4.9b in cash.  Both companies are partners in the $5b Atlantic Coast Pipeline.  The purchase adds one million new rate payers to Duke Energy’s customer base.  Congrats to Duke!

Rates on the Rise?…Think Again.

Today the U.S. Treasury held a 3-year notes auction.  It was one of the strongest in years.  Investors or buyers, for that matter, fly into the safety of USTs motivated by fear and desire for safety.  No one flies into 3yr Notes for the 0.85% yield.  You want my money?  Let’s talk about 5-8% and we can discuss it.  So, when I heard the 3yr auction was so wildly successful I pulled up a chair next to my rates guru Mr. Tony Farren to discuss the matter.  Here are the prescient takeaways:

  • The auction stopped thru 1.2 bps which is a big stop for a 3yr auction.
  • Dealers bought 33.7% of it versus the 6-month average of 38.2%.
  • The bid-to-cover or oversubscription rate was 2.98x versus the 6-month average of 2.76x.
  • Bidders at the auction yield (stopped 1.2 bps thru) only received 54.18% of their size bid for (so, if you bid for $100mm you only wound up buying $54.18mm).

What does it all mean?  Lower-for-longer.  The Fed is not raising rates anytime soon folks.  Taking rate volatility off the table means dive int the stock market readers.  Get back in now.

To read the full (excerpted edition) of Aug 9 edition of “Quigley’s Corner”, please click here

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ETF News, Tech Talk

CME Launches Tool To Compare ETF Pricing vs Futures

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(Traders Magazine)-CME Group, the US derivatives exchange, has launched an online tool to allow investors to compare the costs of futures against exchange-traded funds, as some ETF issuers have claimed the funds are now cheaper to use.

Last month the CME launched the Total Cost Analysis tool to allow investors to compare the all-in costs of replicating the S&P 500 by trading equity index futures versus ETFs, and intends to expand the tool to other indexes.

Tim McCourt, global head of equity products at CME Group, told Markets Media: “The online tool gives customers the flexibility to compare costs for specific variables such as commissions, trade size and time period.”

The tool focuses on three different components of the total cost of trading – transaction costs, implementation costs and holding costs. McCourt claimed that for an active trader on a short time horizon, futures are overwhelmingly cheaper on a total cost of trading basis, which includes both fees and market impact but in certain circumstances, over different time periods, this could change.

Source, the European ETF issuer, had issued a paper in April, “ETFs vs Futures”, which said futures have become more expensive due to bank regulation while ETFs have become cheaper due to increased competition. The paper said that futures costs have been cheaper recently, this is expected to change. “We expect that, as volatility reduces, the usual imbalance between buyers and sellers in the futures markets will resume and futures costs will return to the levels we saw between 2013 and 2015,” said the report.

In addition Source said futures are particularly expensive relative to ETFs at the December roll as banks have less risk appetite at the financial year-end. “For investors planning to hold an exposure over the December-March period, it may make sense to buy ETFs instead of futures,” added Source.

To continue reading, please click here

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Global Macro Strategy, People Profiles

Trump to Shut Dept of State and Open Dept of Sex; Melania To Head

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TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPECIAL REPORT: GOP NOMINEE VOWS TO SHUT US DEPT OF STATE AND REPLACE WITH US DEPT OF SEX;  FIRST LADY MELANIA TO GIVE HEAD AND “LEND A HAND”

DONALD TRUMP TWEETS “MY NEW US DEPARTMENT  WILL BE PROFITABLE STARTING DAY ONE!”

(MarketsMuse Exclusive)- Donald Trump, the GOP Presidential Nominee announced today “Because our foreign policy is such a disaster, during my first 100 days as President, I will not only build a really big wall along the Mexico border, I hereby vow to shut the U.S. Department of State until someone can figure out what the heck is going on with our foreign policy and at the same time, I will appoint my wife and First Lady Melania Trump to sit on my staff as Secretary and lead a newly-created US Department of Sex.” Mr. Trump vowed this would be a Cabinet-level role and “unlike every money-losing US Government agency, my new department will be “profitable starting day one!”

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Selen Katz, “Creative Director” for Seaquake.io

IF YOU LIKE THIS COVERAGE, CLICK ON TO READ ABOUT SEAQUAKE CRYPTO SCAM UNCOVERED BY MARKETSMUSE: 

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photo by Ale de Basseville

In a series of 140-character tweets pushed out late Saturday night by Donald Trump after the NY Post revealed uncovered the plan, the Republican candidate eviscerated the foreign policy strategy initiatives of the Obama administration and declared, “Let’s face it folks, #SEX is the ultimate influencer when it comes to global diplomacy. All of the world’s great leaders have been swayed by legions of  Eastern European models and consorts, and Melania is well-trained to lend a hand to my administration; trust me!.” Added Trump, ” We will immediately reward the vast number of under-educated white males in our country who have been so cheated by the rigged system and whose votes are so important to our country!” Trump went further to state ” I hereby pledge that my wife Melania will administer hand jobs to every single uneducated white male who votes for me in the national election.” In a follow-up tweet, Trump stated, “These will be the GREATEST hand jobs ever administered, and you can trust me when I make this promise!”

Trump also suggested that Estonia Government Bonds issued in 1927, long considered to have little value after Russia annexed the country in 1940, would “soon be worth much more than original face value, much more!”

Despite the fact that Mr. Trump has been a direct party to more than 3700 civil law suits during his business career, he insists that the promise to have his wife perform manual sex on under-educated white male voters is “a legal contract that I swear on my son Baron’s head, is a binding agreement that I will co-sign and one that I will not breach and she will not breach!”

In a late-breaking tweet made Sunday morning, Donald Trump said “This promise does not have to be limited to only under-educated white males, Melania will also provide manual sex to any woman who votes for me! This proves that I truly love and respect all women!”

Trump advisor Paul Manafort confirmed that “Donald Trump’s plan to create a revenue-producing US Federal Department of Sex could easily wipe out trillions in US national debt within the first two years of a Trump administration.”

Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner who was recently appointed National Finance Chairman to the Trump Campaign

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Trump Finance Head Steve Mnuchin (c)

stated, “Winning and making money and making America great again is our focus. Many people on Wall Street know that Melania is a perfect role model who can lend her own hands to lead a profitable US Government initiative that can wipe out the national debt in a few easy strokes! Mnunchin added, I personally hope that other Trump family members will want to join in this program!”

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Donald Trump offering Hitler-style salute

How this latest pledge on the part of Donald Trump’s effort to be elected will impact financial markets remains unclear. According to one CNBC commentator, “From a global macro perspective, I don’t know how the markets will react to Trump’s promise, but I can tell you that most of our Squawk Box talking heads are going to putting out buy recommendations on this new plan and most viewers of CNBC will likely be impressed!”

EC-mandates-ISIN-code-MiFID
Global Macro Strategy, Tech Talk

European Commission Green Lights ISIN Protocol for MiFID II

EC Embraces ISIN reference code protocol for financial instrument identifiers as MiFID II nears full implementation

(Waters Technology |InsideReferenceData.com) 20 July 2016-The European Commission (EC) has adopted several technical standards of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), including RTS 23 (Regulatory Technical Standard), which deals with standards and formats for financial instrument reference data. The initial version of the standards mandated the International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) for reporting under MiFID II and the commission is in the process of finalizing level two texts of the regulation.

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David Nowell

David Nowell, head of regulatory compliance and industry relations, UnaVista, London Stock Exchange (LSE) Group, welcomes the development, despite blistering complaints voiced by Richard Young, who leads the “open symbology’ team for  Bloomberg LP, which has long been seeking to advance its own proprietary reference code protocol known as FIGI. Bloomberg LP is a privately-owned market data platform that charges upwards of USD $28,000 per user, per year to access the firm’s terminal farm.

“London Stock Exchange welcomes the European Commission’s proposals to adopt the ISIN as the instrument identifier under MiFID II. The use of the ISIN and its accompanying Classification of Financial Instruments (CFI) code allows regulators to have both an identifier and associated instrument classification data,” says Nowell.

The LSE Group has been involved in industry efforts to develop the ISIN for over-the-counter derivatives reporting. One proposed approach is to combine the ISIN with the CFI for more granular identification of an instrument.

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ETF News

Pac-Man Time for ETF Issuers

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If you thought the ETF Issuers industry is getting crowded, you are right. While the barrier to entry is relatively low, the path to traction-measured by AUM can prove rocky, if not populated with land mines. What’s an Issuer to do? Join the Pac-Man Party and sell out what you’ve built to those with a fresh perspective who want to Pass Go and collect the $200 (metaphorically speaking) without having to start from scratch. MarketsMuse gives a shout-out to P&I contributor Randy Diamond for the following update..

“More and more money managers are looking at a way to get into the ETF marketplace,” he said. “The fastest way to do that is through an acquisition; buy something already out there.”

Small ETF providers might have little market share, but that hasn’t stopped them from being acquired by larger active money management firms looking for a quick way to enter or expand their exchange-traded funds business.

Hartford Funds, Radnor, Pa., announced May 17 its purchase of Lattice Strategies, a San Francisco firm known for its smart-beta ETFs. Just a week earlier, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Boston, said it would acquire New York-based ETF provider Emerging Global Advisors.

The two announcements by money management firms are the latest in a string of deals that began in late 2014.

At least two more ETF providers will be sold in 2016 to money managers, predicted investment banker Donald Putnam, a managing partner at San Francisco-based Grail Partners LLC. Mr. Putnam said likely buyers will be firms with 20% to 40% of assets under management in mutual funds. “A lot of it has to do with pivoting existing mutual funds into ETF clones, a lot of it has to do with taking asset management styles that are not in mutual funds and putting them in ETF form initially rather than in old-fashioned mutual fund form,” he said.

Mr. Putnam wouldn’t say which ETF companies he believes are ripe for acquisition, but Reggie Browne, senior managing director and head of ETF trading at Cantor Fitzgerald LP, New York, said potential acquisition targets include AdvisorShares Investments LLC and WisdomTree Investments Inc., New York.

AdvisorShares, Bethesda, Md., with $1.2 billion in assets under management, is the more typical size of ETF managers being acquired. Publicly traded WisdomTree, on the other hand, is the largest independent ETF company in the U.S., with $42 billion in assets under management.

Jan van Eck, president and CEO of New York-based VanEck Global, an ETF company with $23.7 billion in U.S. ETF assets, said in the past year he has talked to at least 10 managers interested in acquiring an ETF company. “We stay in touch with potential strategic partners and investors, but we don’t see a reason for a transaction,” he said. “We think we can grow sufficiently as an independent company.”

Capture a slice

Todd Rosenbluth, a New York-based senior director and director of ETF and mutual fund research at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said as asset flows continue to move from active management and into areas such as ETFs, active managers are trying to position themselves to capture a slice of the growing business.

“More and more money managers are looking at a way to get into the ETF marketplace,” he said. “The fastest way to do that is through an acquisition; buy something already out there.”

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