| Feb 2, 2012 | Vol III: No.04 |
 |
News AnalysisDerivatives lead EU to halt merger : The European Union blocked the Deutsche Boerse’s planned merger with NYSE Euronext, a $10 billion deal that would have created the world’s largest financial exchange operator. The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said it was ruling against the merger because the combined exchange would have controlled more than 90 percent of the trading in European derivatives – complex but highly profitable financial products that allow investors to bet on changes in interest rates or the price of oil. It said that the combined company’s dominance of that market would have made it almost impossible for competitors to offer rival trading systems. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________Freddie Mac Halts Use of Derivatives Tied to High Interest Rates : Freddie Mac stopped making investments in derivatives known as inverse floaters last year after a regulatory exam raised questions about the mortgage company’s controls, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said. An FHFA examination “identified concerns regarding the controls, including risk management, surrounding the inverse floaters,” the oversight agency said in a statement. “FHFA and Freddie Mac agreed that these transactions would not resume.” FHFA, Freddie Mac’s regulator, released the statement in response to an article published by news organizations ProPublica and National Public Radio saying the company stood to profit from billions of dollars in positions that relied on homeowners remaining in mortgages with high interest rates. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________CAMAC releases report on derivatives regulation : In November 2010, the Australian Government commissioned the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee (CAMAC) to review the existing Australian regulatory regime for derivatives and consider the appropriateness of the regime in today's economic environment. CAMAC was also asked to examine the definition of "derivative" in the Corporations Act and consider whether it should be amended to reduce the complexity of the law in this area. Following consultation with a number of industry participants, CAMAC released its report on 24 January 2012. The report contains a useful overview of the existing regulatory framework for derivatives under the Corporations Act. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________CFTC Weighs Rules for High-Frequency Derivatives Trading Under Dodd-Frank : The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is working to complete Dodd-Frank Act rules for derivatives markets, is weighing new rules and oversight of companies that use automated and high-frequency trading systems. CFTC members may vote to issue a so-called concept release in the next few months to gather public comment on potential regulations. The increased focus on automated trading comes as the CFTC this year looks to complete rulemaking under Dodd-Frank, the regulatory overhaul that expanded oversight over derivatives markets after largely unregulated transactions helped fuel the 2008 credit crisis. Read more... |
 |
Human FactorNZX says Tim Bennett's appointment as its new chief executive will mean business as usual for the securities market operator, but it is hoping his international experience will open opportunities for its equities, agriculture and derivative platforms. The Wellington-based company announced the appointment of the Singapore-based kiwi expat to the New Zealand market yesterday, with incumbent Mark Weldon handing over the reigns on May 7 after 10 years in the role. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________Wells Fargo Securities announced that Geoffrey Keith has joined the firm as a managing director in the institutional investment solutions group. Based in New York, Keith will be responsible for the development and marketing of equity- and commodity-linked investment solutions for the firm’s global institutional client base. He will report to Rick Silva, managing director and head of institutional investment solutions for Wells Fargo Securities. Keith brings more than 20 years of derivatives experience to his new position. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation appointed Nadine Chakar as head of its Derivatives360(SM) business, which comprises an array of offerings for issuers and investors involving the execution and processing of derivatives. Reporting to Karen Peetz, vice chairman and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon’s financial markets and treasury services division, Chakar succeeds Patrick Tadie, who has been named business executive for the company’s alternative and broker-dealer services businesses. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________ELX Futures announced that veteran futures industry executive Richard Jaycobs will succeed Neal Wolkoff as chief executive officer of ELX. Jaycobs, a 25-year veteran of the futures and derivatives industry, has served as president of the Cantor Exchange. Earlier, he served as CEO of the Clearing Corporation (formerly the Board of Trade Clearing Corporation), CEO of onExchange, and managing director at the New York Cotton Exchange. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________ |
 |
Tech FrontTorstone Technology Launches Inferno : Torstone Technology announced the launch of Inferno, a major software release for post-trade securities and derivatives processing. Inferno is designed to address fragmentation in today’s financial markets where the pressure is on the back office to take information from a wide range of specialist front-office trading systems. Targeting regional and mid-sized investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds and brokers, Inferno is an enterprise-level clearing, settlement and integrated accounting application which supports multi-asset, multi-currency and multi-location operations. Built for today’s financial markets are fragmented with increasing numbers of trading venues and counterparties, Inferno tackles the need to capture trades from multiple front-office systems and interface with clearinghouses, globally, states the release. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________TMX Group to introduce next generation equity trading technology : TMX Group Inc. announced that it is advancing its technology roadmap with the planned production implementation of the company's next generation equity trading technology, which is based on hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration is a general term that refers to the off-loading of processing work from server CPUs onto specialized hardware. The next generation trading technology, which is called TMX Quantum XATM, will provide TMX Group equity trading participants with dramatically enhanced speed and capacity as well as more efficient order processing. It is expected that there will be a twenty-fold reduction in median latency to sub-100 microseconds on order executions. The new trading system is designed to be capable of handling 200,000 orders per second. To augment these new capabilities, 10 Gb communication access will be made available for the first time to Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange and TMX Select customers. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________FlexTrade Approved by DGCX : FlexTrade has been certified as an approved Independent Software Vendor (ISV) by the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX). The company's broker-neutral, multi-asset algorithmic trading systems are now available to members. Specific derivatives offerings include FlexOPT, FlexOPT-RM, FlexOPT-OMM and FlexFutures, covering connectivity, risk and stress analysis, compliance, trading strategies and execution systems. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________Bloomberg Open Sources Its Market Data Distribution Technology : Following up on its 2009 release of Bloomberg's Open Symbology (BSYM), a system to identify securities across global asset classes, Bloomberg LP is opening its market data interfaces to anyone, without cost or restriction. The market data provider's application programming interface (API), known as BLPAPI (Bloomberg LP API), is already used by Bloomberg, its clients and other technology providers to build connections between financial firms' applications and Bloomberg's market data and applications. The company hopes the release will spur innovation and increase collaboration. Read more... |
 |
Event WatchApril 16-20, 2012 Addressing the latest developments with Advanced Pricing, Hedging & Risk Management of Equity Details _________________________________________________________________________April 2, 2012 4th Annual Derivatives World Latin America 2012 will be the premier place to explore and discuss latest news and developments for the region’s derivatives market. Leaders of the futures and options industry will speak on strategic topics defining the market, sharing expertise and knowledge of the most pertinent issues. Details _________________________________________________________________________April 20, 2012 European Equity Options Trading Forum brings together the industry’s brightest options traders to discuss the latest developments, regulation and trends on the European stage. The event has not only found a home in Amsterdam, arguably the home of European options, but it has also generated a loyal following of options traders. Details _________________________________________________________________________ |
For information about Headstrong Asset Management Service : Information@headstrong.com