Competition Monday starts with news that Deutsche Börse is considering new currency futures products in Europe to challenge the upcoming CME Group offerings. Alasdair Haynes, ex-Chi-X Europe boss, has plans to start a new alternative trading system to compete with his former company, as well as with established traditional exchanges. In the U.S., the CFTC gives a thumbs-up to new exchange TrueEX to create interest-rate swap products for trading. In First Read today, be sure to take a look at the new John Lothian Profiles feature: in-depth interviews with some of the trading community’s most interesting and influential people. The series starts with a profile of CBOT icon Thomas J. Cashman. And finally, take a gander at the new MarketsWiki.tv interview with Brian Fox, founder and chief marketing officer of Confirmation.com, who talks about his company’s electronic confirmation system.
John Lothian Profiles: Tom Cashman
John Lothian Profiles is a new video series from John Lothian News. In this series we will profile an eclectic selection of traders and ask them to share their stories and observations with us about the lessons they learned about trading. Our first subject is Thomas J. Cashman, a 50-year member of the Chicago Board of Trade and member of an iconic Board of Trade family. Tom is also the person who gave me my start in the industry.
I have learned a lot from Tom, about trading, about life and about integrity, friendliness and class. My employment with Tom was the reason I fell in love with the markets, and with journalism. He helped forge the passions that drove me to enter this business and ultimately create John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. and all it does. He taught me to always do what is right for the integrity of the markets, a lesson he learned from his uncles who gave him his start in the business.
He also taught me by his example that the people in life who are the happiest are those who are givers. Tom’s long career at the CBOT and the Chicago community is a history of giving of himself, his leadership and his treasure. Among his current activities and roles is being president of the Chicago 100 Club, a charity that provides for the families of police officers, firefighters and paramedics of Cook County who have lost their lives in the line-of-duty.
I am pleased to share with you this profile of Tom Cashman. There is a full version of our profile of Tom and all the questions we asked him below. There are also segments we will run each day for the next several days that break the interview down into smaller sections.
Over the next months, we will be offering additional profiles of other traders, asking them about the lesson they have learned about trading.
~John J. Lothian
Profiles: Tom Cashman (Part 1: Starting Out)
Tom Cashman, a member of an iconic Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) family, is a pit trader, exchange trading floor broker and 50-year member of the exchange. Tom Cashman’s contributions to the CBOT governance are numerous, including serving as chairman of the Floor Governors Committee and chair of the CBOT’s Ethics and Integrity Committee formed following the FBI Investigations of the futures markets in the late 1980s. He has been a member of the exchange since 1962.
John Lothian and Jim Kharouf hit the road; Doug Ashburn conjures up the ghost of Al Haig
Messrs. Lothian and Kharouf will be in New York until Wednesday. In a move reminiscent of Alexander Haig who, in 1981, after hearing the news that Reagan had been shot, and with Vice-President Bush en route to Washington, declared “I am in control here,” Editor-at-Large Doug Ashburn has seized control of the color analysis duties on JLN. While he assures you that he is not in control of anything around here, the rest of the editorial team has agreed to humor him for a few days.
Major Milestone for Tim Lothian
Tim Lothian, with his proud parents, after being honored for earning his Life rank at the Troop 117 Court of Honor last night.
**DA: Congratulations to Tim on this well-deserved honor.
Brian Fox of Confirmation.com Talks About Exposing & Preventing Brokerage Fraud
Brian Fox, founder and chief marketing officer of Confirmation.com, found his firm in the midst of one of the largest frauds in futures history several months ago. Hired by the National Futures Association to electronically confirm customer account balances that futures brokers report with the actual balances held at their banks, Confirmation.com helped expose the PFGBest fraud. Brian Fox spoke with John Lothian News editor-in-chief Jim Kharouf about the case, how the confirmation system works and just how far electronic confirmations in the futures brokerage space can go to prevent fraud.
CFTC Rule Restraining Speculation Rejected by U.S. Judge
Tom Schoenberg – Bloomberg
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission rule restraining speculation was rejected by a federal judge, handing a victory to two Wall Street groups that challenged the constraints.
**DA: I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of Bart Chilton’s office when the ruling was handed down.
BGC Partners Appoints Peter O’Toole As Managing Director, New Business Development, London And Specified European Initiatives
BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the wholesale financial markets, today announced the appointment of Peter O’Toole as Managing Director, New Business Development, London and specified European initiatives. In this role, Mr. O’Toole will assume responsibility for a number of existing business groups and focus on building BGC’s financial services business as it expands into new product areas, hires talented professionals and explores further opportunities for organic growth and acquisition.
**DA: He will also be starring in an upcoming remake of Lawrence of Arabia.
Ice move from swaps to futures unlikely to be last, says O’Malia
Peter Madigan – Risk magazine
The decision by Atlanta-based Ice to accelerate its transition of all existing over-the-counter cleared swap and option positions to economically equivalent futures or options contracts reflects a lack of clarity in new swaps regulation, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has said. And Ice is unlikely to be the only exchange to make the shift, he added.
**DA: Should we call them “swutures?” “Fwaps?”
Wall Street: Leaner and meaner
Tom Braithwaite – FT.com
When Jamie Forese started out at Salomon Brothers in 1985, being an investment banker was not a guaranteed ticket to riches. “A career on Wall Street was considered a stable income, same as a lawyer, a doctor, an accountant,” he recalls. What changed, he says, was banks’ addiction to leverage – the cheap debt that fattened profits and bonuses, financed mega-mergers and ultimately fuelled the global financial crisis.
Presenting The World’s Biggest Hedge Fund You Have Never Heard Of
The world’s largest hedge fund is not located in the top floor of some shiny, floor-to-ceiling glass clad skyscraper in New York, London, Hong Kong or Shanghai. It isn’t in some sprawling mansion in Greenwich or Stamford which houses a state of the art trading desk behind a crocodile-filled moat. Instead it can be found in tiny, nondescript office in Suite 225 located on 730 Sandhill Road in Reno, Nevada.
**DA: Fascinating. Starts out like a Sid Finch-type April Fool’s joke, but it’s for real.
A Very Strange Way to Assess the Safety of Banks
Global regulators have a peculiar way of assessing the soundness of big banks: Ask bankers how risky their investments are, then figure out if they have enough capital to absorb the potential losses.
High frequency traders’ claims refuted by studies
Vince Heaney – FT.com
Advocates of high frequency trading (HFT) like to point to the advantages it brings in terms of market efficiency. But recent testimony before the US Senate Banking Committee and a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago both paint HFT in a rather different light.
**DA: Plenty of evidence on both sides of that argument. For proof, visit the HFT page on MarketsReformWiki.
Will Better Regulation Boost New York Past London In Finance?
The City appears to be booming. But the gleaming mirrored windows do not reflect reality. London’s days as the world’s premier financial centre are numbered, with New York set to take over,” writes Will Rhode, TABB Group principal and director of fixed income research, a Londoner now based in New York, for TabbFORUM.
Peregrine victims hope for possible shell accounts
The Des Moines Register
Victims of the financial scandal at Peregrine Financial Group may finally get some good news, thanks to the possible existence of shell accounts at the defunct futures and commodities brokerage.
**DA: Another layer of fraud just exposed, but this time it is good news!
The art of valuing commodities
Philip McBride Johnson – FOW
Having practiced law for roughly 50 years, mostly related to financial (especially derivatives) markets, I stand in awe of those whose profession consists of making sense of commodity prices. They are way smarter than me. I am not referring to journalists who deal in connectors like “as” or “while.” Such as “Orange Juice Prices Spike As Middle East Riots Escalate” or “Copper Weakens While California Struggles To Contain Wild Fires.” No, I am speaking of the economists and traders whose livelihoods depend on really understanding cause and effect in the commodities world.
**DA: Gold higher this morning as Europe retains the Ryder Cup.
Moscow rings the changes after exchange merger
Wyn Jenkins – Financial News
When Russian exchanges Micex and RTS undertook a $4.5bn state-backed merger in December, the move was heralded as the cornerstone of the Russian government’s plan to transform Moscow into an international financial centre.
Going gets hard for soft commodity funds
Sarah Krouse – Financial News
Let them eat sweets. One of the more bizarre impacts of the drought that has ravaged the Midwestern United States this year is the sight of farmers feeding their cattle with candy.
Bair Blasts Geithner, ‘Culture of Greed,’ in Blunt Memoir
Anyone who doubts that our financial system remains a combustible stew of greed, inadequate regulation and perverse incentives need look no further than “Bull by the Horns,” a blunt new memoir from Sheila Bair, the former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
**DA: Bair is conservative but socially aware. She believes in capitalism, but also strong regulation, and understands the economic realities of it all. Is it too late for a third-party candidate to enter the Presidential race?
WFE Focus, September 2012: WFE 52nd Annual Meeting
MarketsWiki Page of the Day
MarketsWiki Recent Updates
Companies, Organizations and Groups
29,043,213 pages viewed, 7,121 articles, 147,947 edits
Deutsche Börse Eyes Currency-Futures Challenge To CME
JACOB BUNGE – WSJ.com
Deutsche Börse AG is considering a return to offering currency futures contracts in an effort to outmaneuver its largest rival as competition in the sector shifts from the U.S. to Europe, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
Former Chi-X Chief Haynes to Set Up New Trading System
Nandini Sukumar and Namitha Jagadeesh – Bloomberg
Alasdair Haynes, the ex-chief executive officer of Chi-X Europe Ltd., plans to start a alternative trading system in competition with his former employer and traditional exchanges.
CFTC Grants TrueEX Exchange Status to Offer Interest-Rate Swaps
Matthew Leising – Bloomberg
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission granted designated contract market status to trueEX, a swaps exchange founded by Sunil Hirani.
Money Funds’ $1 Share Price At Risk
JESSICA HOLZER And ANDREW ACKERMAN – WSJ.com
A proposal to require money-market mutual funds to abandon their signature $1 share price picked up steam Friday, as two securities regulators voiced support for the idea. The move to float the funds’ $1 share prices, currently stable, comes a day after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner put pressure on the Securities and Exchange Commission to reconsider new rules for the funds.
Ex-analyst at SAC Capital unit admits insider trading
Reuters via Yahoo! News
A former analyst at a division of SAC Capital, the hedge fund founded by Steven Cohen, pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of insider trading and agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors in an investigation of what they say was a $62 million scheme.
Libor Furor: Key Rate Gets New Scrutiny
JEAN EAGLESHAM, ROB BARRY and TOM MCGINTY – WSJ.com
Libor is supposed to reflect banks’ borrowing costs, using each firm’s assessment of risk in fast-moving markets to form a daily benchmark that underpins trillions of dollars of loans and other financial contracts.
Analysis: They’re back! Yield hunt pushes funds into CLOs, CDOs
Reuters via Yahoo! News
NEW YORK – Fund managers are increasingly eyeing riskier exotic assets, some of which haven’t been in fashion since the financial crisis, as yields on traditional investments get close to rock bottom.
Greece certain to get next round of aid: reports
Greece will get another round of international aid because euro-area leaders do not want the deficit-riddled nation to exit the common currency, according to wire service accounts Saturday citing two German magazines.
Odd Debt Rule That Whipsaws Bank Earnings to Be Eased
MICHAEL RAPOPORT – WSJ.com
Accounting rule makers are on the verge of rolling back a widely assailed provision that counterintuitively adds to U.S. banks’ profits when their debt looks riskier to investors and penalizes them when it looks safer.
U.K. Financial Services May Have Cut 9,000 Jobs, CBI Survey Says
The U.K. financial-services industry lost an estimated 9,000 jobs in the third quarter as revenue and profit declined, according to a survey by Britain’s biggest business lobby group.
Graduates turn away from Wall St
Tom Braithwaite in New York – FT.com
More graduates are opting for careers outside investment banking as the pull of big bonuses is replaced by job insecurity in an industry struggling to adapt to regulatory change.
Facing ‘Fiscal Cliff,’ Obama Would Quickly Fill Treasury Job
DAMIAN PALETTA – WSJ.com
If re-elected, President Barack Obama is expected to move quickly in November to nominate a new Treasury secretary, and that person could play a key role negotiating with Congress about the looming “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and spending cuts, people familiar with the planning said.
Fed’s George slams Dodd-Frank reform, says too complex
A senior Federal Reserve official on Friday criticized major U.S. reforms designed to avoid a repeat of the devastating 2008 financial crisis, saying they failed to address industry weaknesses and could make matters worse the next time around.
SEC Announces Panelists for Market Technology Roundtable on October 2
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the panelists who will participate in the agency’s October 2 market technology roundtable that will discuss the relationship between the operational stability and integrity of the securities markets and the ways that market participants design, implement, and manage complex and interconnected trading technologies.
Insight: Chicago Fed warned on high-frequency trading, SEC slow to respond
Reuters via Yahoo! News
NEW YORK – More than two years ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago was pushing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to get serious about the dangers of superfast computer-driven trading. Only now is the SEC getting around to taking a closer look at some of those issues.
Exchanges, Brokers Float New Trading Safeguards
By JACOB BUNGE – Dow Jones
U.S. stock-market operators and major brokers on Friday proposed that exchanges develop new controls that could shut off a financial firm’s trading if its positions grow too large.
U.K.’s FSA to Tighten London Listing Rules
The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority will this week announce a clampdown on listing rules, aimed at avoiding the scandals that have surrounded foreign mining companies such as Kazakhstan’s Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. PLC and Indonesia’s Bumi PLC, reports the Independent on Sunday newspaper, without saying where it got its information.
Regulators rule, according to FSA
Mike Foster – Financial News
If there was ever any doubt about it before the Financial Services Authority’s asset management conference in London last week, now there is none.
Statement Of CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler On Position Limits
ISDA Response To BCBS And IOSCO Consultative Document On Margin Requirements For Non-Centrally-Cleared Derivatives
European Commission Statement On The Publication Of Results Of Stress Tests Of Spanish Banks
ECB Welcomes Announcement By Spanish Authorities On Bottom-Up Stress Test
Exchanges & Trading Facilities
Burgundy: Aggregated Market Shares – Swedish Equities, September 2012
[OSE] Trading Overview in September 2012 & First Half of Fiscal Year 2012 (April to September)
Derivative trading volume for the first half of fiscal year 2012 (April to September) was 99,144,955 units, which recorded the second highest on a first-half-year basis.
[TFX] Trading Volume in September 2012
The trading volume of Three-month Euroyen futures was 321,063 decreasing 52.7% in comparison to that of the previous year comparable month, and decreasing 25.3% in comparison to that of the previous month, and the daily average was 16,898 .
Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) – Statistical Report – 9 Months 2012
The Technical Disturbance Are Solved For NASDAQ OMX Commodities Markets
The trading system is available for login and will be set to open from 10.00 CET.
NASDAQ OMX Commodities : Please Note That Heartbeat Monitoring Has Been Disabled
The technical disturbances are solved for Genium INET, please note that heartbeat monitoring has been disabled, hence cancel-on-disconnect functionality will not work. For more information contact Technical Support.
[SIX] Structured Products Fair 2012: Discover the potential
The motto of the Swiss Structured Products Fair which is being held for the sixth time on October 24 and 25, 2012 at the Kongresshaus Zurich is “Discover the potential”. At the event, organized jointly by the Swiss Structured Products Association (SSPA) and Scoach Switzerland Ltd, the exhibitors – including the market’s major players – will present the potential and advantages of these flexible investment instruments. Both fair days also feature specialist speeches by renowned experts and roundtables on current issues.
[CBOE] Trader E-News
[CBOE] Restrictions on Transactions in IGATE Computer Systems Limited
[CBOE] Pilot Program Eliminating Position and Exercise Limits for SPY Options
[CBOE] Restrictions on Transactions in Direct Markets Holding Corp
NYSE EURONEXT Announces EARLY RESULTS of TENDER OFFER FOR ANY AND ALL of its 4.80% NOTES DUE 2013
NYSE Announces Fourth-Quarter 2012 Circuit-Breaker Levels
TOM MTF Statistics Week 39
Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, Montreal Exchange, TMX Select And Alpha Closed For Thanksgiving
Hedge Funds & Managed Futures
Oregon Rewards CMBS Manager Who Blew Up Fund in 2008: Mortgages
Edward Shugrue lost $100 million of Oregon’s state pension fund during the credit crisis in 2008, within three years of getting the money to invest in commercial property debt. The retirement board took just 30 minutes last month to hand him another $125 million.
BlackRock Acquires Moscow Exchange Stake From Kremlin Fund
BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest asset manager, bought shares in the Moscow Exchange from the Russia Direct Investment Fund before the bourse’s planned initial public offering, the Kremlin-backed fund said.
TIPS Show Inflation Alarm Fading as Options Give Fed Time
Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund, says the Federal Reserve’s open-ended plan to flood the economy with $40 billion a month will ignite inflation. The options market is signaling that won’t happen anytime soon.
US investors pulled $300B out of equity markets in last two years
New York Post
The US individual investor is taking his money and running for the exits. Everyday shareholders can’t compete with high-frequency trading or the regulations coming out of the Dodd-Frank rules, which ironically were enacted to inspire confidence in the market.
Enterprising College Buckaroos Start a Hedge Fund
New York Magazine
It’s been a rough year for hedge funds. Even the best ones have been trying and mostly failing to keep up with the stock market. But a trio of North Carolina college students aren’t letting a down year defer their dreams. The undergrad whippersnappers are opening Lumina Investments.
KKR branches out with Acteon
Guy Chazan in London – FT.com
First Reserve, the energy-focused private equity group, said it had sold its stake in oil services company Acteon Group to US buyout group KKR.
A tail-risk short position that will pay off soon
John Dizard – FT.com
For all Mr Market’s reputed genius, he can only keep a very limited number of items in his mind at one time. One idea is certainly possible, such as: “Is this a risk on, or risk off day?” Or, possibly, two ideas, in which case we could add: “Is it time to get out of Treasuries because the Fed is making sure we don’t get paid anything after inflation and taxes and that can’t go on forever?”
New strategies come to fore as funds take broader view
Alice Ross – FT.com
On the face of it, appetite among global pension funds for alternative assets is rising. Institutional investors around the world have been looking for asset classes that are less correlated ever since the credit crunch in 2008. Pension funds now hold 20 per cent of their total wealth in so-called alternatives, which include hedge funds, private equity and commodities, up from 5 per cent 15 years ago, according to a recent survey from Towers Watson.
David Simon’s Twin Capital Nominated for Three Hedge Fund Industry Awards
Twin Capital Management LLC and its Twin Securities, L.P. fund has been nominated for the “Long/Short Equity Global Fund over $250 Million,” the best “Event Driven” fund and the top “Merger Arbitrage” fund awards. HFMWeek will announce winners at the awards ceremony on October 18, 2012.
Carlyle’s Rubenstein Sees Small Investors Entering Funds
David Rubenstein , co-founder of the buyout firm Carlyle Group LP , said ordinary savers may someday be able to invest with firms like his, a business that so far has been limited to wealthy individuals and institutions.
JPMorgan case shows why energy trading schemes are chronic problem
Los Angeles Times
Regulator proposes to penalize JPMorgan for giving it the runaround in a probe of an earlier bid-rigging allegation in the California electricity market. We all know what corporate law firms are for, right? To represent their clients’ interest fairly and professionally, of course. To obfuscate, obstruct, delay, misdirect — sometimes that too.
Facebook still has believers among fund managers
Lansing State Journal
Few investors have been hitting the ‘like’ button for Facebook Inc. The stock has lost nearly half its value since May’s highly anticipated but botched initial public offering.
Drought Hits Shippers on Great Lakes
JOE BARRETT and CAROLINE PORTER – WSJ.com
The Midwest drought is lowering water levels in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to near-record lows, putting pressure on the shipping industry and turning some beaches into long mud flats. It is also intensifying a debate over a decades-old dredging project near Detroit that permanently reduced the lakes’ levels by nearly two feet.
Banks & Brokers
Europe focused on union rather than breaking up banks
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Experts may recommend this week that European banks should separate retail banking from their riskier investment arms to make them safer and soften the impact of financial crises. But European Union regulators are unlikely to pursue such a radical reform at a time when they are trying to build a banking union to underpin the euro currency and the financial sector.
BofA to Pay $2.43 Billion to End Investor Lawsuit Over Merrill
Zachary Tracer and Bradley Keoun – Bloomberg
Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay $2.43 billion to investors who suffered losses during its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. in the largest settlement yet of a class-action shareholder lawsuit stemming from 2008’s financial crisis.
Deutsche Bank Said to Repackage Post-Crisis CMBS Into New Bonds
Deutsche Bank AG is planning to repackage lower-ranking commercial-mortgage bonds into new securities carrying higher grades, using a technique similar to those that fueled sales of risky debt before mortgage values collapsed five years ago.
The art of bad bank management
William Wright – Financial News
It is self-evident that an industry that needed to be bailed out with hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, and which is still struggling to create a sustainably profitable business model, is badly run.
Credit Agricole Enters Exclusive Talks to Sell Emporiki to Alpha
Morgan Stanley Says Simon Robey to Step Down After 25 Years
Morgan Stanley ’s most senior dealmaker in London , Simon Robey, plans to step down after 25 years to start his own advisory firm.
Clearing & Settlement
LCH Said to Seek Exemption From U.S. Rule for Swap-Clearing Time
Matthew Leising and Silla Brush – Bloomberg
LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd. asked to be exempted from a rule taking effect next week requiring the largest clearer of interest-rate swaps between banks and their customers to confirm trades in less than 60 seconds.
SIX Securities Services Doubles International Repo Currency Offering
SIX Securities Services, Switzerland’s post-trade services provider, announced that starting today it will offer international Repo services for an additional 5 currencies, bringing the total offering to 10 currencies. The new currencies are the New Zealand Dollar, the Australian Dollar, the Swedish Krona, Danish Krone and Norwegian Krone.
LCH.CLEARNET REGULATORY CAPITAL UPDATE; RESULTS OF ESMA/EBA CONSULTATION
CME Group Clearing Advisory: NYMEX Options Expiration Operational Procedures for the Trading Floor and Clearing Members (C1) Effective Monday, October 1, 2012
Indexes & Products
Leveraged VIX ETFs Tumble Over 95% This Year
ETF Trends via Yahoo! Finance
Although they’re not designed as long-term investments, the performance of a pair of leveraged exchange traded products that invest in VIX futures contracts is shockingly bad in 2012.
The Intelligent Investor: ETF Costs Dwindle, but Don’t Disappear
JASON ZWEIG – WSJ.com
Sometimes what feels at first like good investing news is disturbing once you think about it: central banks handing out free money like heroin, for example. But sometimes what feels like good investing news is even better than that.
Guggenheim Investments Exchange-Traded Funds Declare Monthly Distributions
Guggenheim Investments, the investment management division of Guggenheim Partners, announced today that the following Guggenheim exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) have declared distributions.
Unicredit Launches Products On All Short And Leverage Indices Of The Vienna Stock Exchange
Tribunal upholds FSA decision to ban and fine Swiss fund manager and two former Cantor Fitzgerald traders for market abuse
The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) has directed the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to fine Stefan Chaligné, a Swiss-based hedge fund manager £900,000, (plus disgorgement of the financial benefit he obtained of E362,950) and Patrick Sejean, a former senior salesman on Cantor Fitzgerald Europe’s (CFE) London-based French desk £650,000.
Federal Court Orders Martin B. Rosenthal to Pay $1.2 Million for Aiding and Abetting the Making of False Statements to the NFA, Failing to Register as a Commodity Trading Advisor, and Violating a Previous CFTC Order
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it obtained a federal court order requiring Martin B. Rosenthal of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to pay a civil monetary penalty of $598,000 and disgorgement of $598,000 for aiding and abetting the willful concealment of material facts and the making of false statements to the National Futures Association (NFA), violating a previous CFTC order, and acting as an unregistered Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
CFTC Charges Boston Resident John B. Wilson and His Company with Commodity Pool Fraud
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today filed a civil complaint in federal district court in Boston, Massachusetts, against Boston-based John B. Wilson and his company, JBW Capital LLC (JBW).
SEC Charges Financial Executive in Minnesota With Diverting Company Dollars to Pay Unauthorized Enterntainment Expenses
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the former chief financial officer of a Minnetonka, Minn.-based manufacturer of computer networking devices for secretly diverting company funds to cover unauthorized personal expenses and other employees’ entertainment expenses that lacked any legitimate business purpose.
Former Hedge Fund Research Analyst Pleads Guilty In New York Federal Court To Insider Trading Charges
Environmental & Energy
Australia joins U.N.-led climate coalition
Reuters Point Carbon
Australia on Friday announced it will join the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, a U.N.-led initiative to cut short-lived climate pollutants such as soot and methane.
First carbon permits issued as emissions market dawns
The Sydney Morning Herald
CARBON trading has officially begun in Australia, with the government yesterday issuing the first permits under its carbon price.
Germany, UK to start early Phase 3 EU CO2 auctions
Germany’s European Energy Exchange (EEX) and London-based ICE Futures Europe released details on Friday of the timings of early auctions of Phase Three European Union carbon permits on behalf of their respective governments.
From Tiger to Pussycat
Vietnam’s economy was promising. How the country got off track.
Factbox: Five facts about new Finance Minister Jojima
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda appointed senior lawmaker Koriki Jojima as finance minister on Monday in a cabinet shake-up seen as a last-ditch attempt to boost his Democratic Party’s chances in an election expected soon.
SGX proposes to improve IPO participation for retail investors as securities market transformation continues
Singapore Exchange (SGX) today proposed new share allocations for retail investors participating in Initial Public Offers (IPOs). This initiative is another step in SGX’s plan to transform the securities market, assuring its relevance and competitiveness globally.
Goldman Sachs’ Jim O’Neill: China Best BRIC
China may be slowing, but it’s the best investment of the four big emerging markets, known as the BRICs, Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs told investors in Singapore this weekend. “China is in the early stages of going from a long period where it was all about the quantity of growth.
Tokyo Commodity Exchange: Final Settlement Price Of Crude Oil For September 2012 Contract
Libya says pushing forward with Islamic finance plans
Reuters via Yahoo! News
KUWAIT – Libya hopes to start implementing its new Islamic banking law by the end of the year and expects strong demand among the public for sharia-compliant financial services, Libyan central bank governor Saddek Omar Elkaber said on Monday.
Deutsche Bank’s Aram Says Gulf Arab Bond Sales to Remain Strong
Bond sales from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council will remain “strong” as companies in these countries seek a substitute for declining lending from European banks, the regional head of Deutsche Bank AG , said.
Securities Commission Malaysia Appoints Ahmad Fairuz Bin Zainol Abidin As Executive Director Of Enforcement
The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) today announced the appointment of Ahmad Fairuz bin Zainol Abidin as Executive Director of Enforcement with effect from 1st October 2012. As Executive Director in charge of enforcement, Ahmad Fairuz will lead the SC’s investigation, prosecution and civil enforcement teams.
Private Pension Administrator Malaysia Appoints CEO
Egyptian Exchange Chairman Meeting With The Polish Ambassador In Cairo
ADX Receives Mexican Delegation
Malawi Stock Exchange Weekly Trading Report
When Banks Erase a Debt That Isn’t There
New York Times
To the ire of some customers who couldn’t get their lenders to work with them before, banks are now forgiving mortgage debts that no longer exist.