Former NYSE CEO to head up crypto code of conduct group

First Read

Consensus: Invest recap
Chuck Mackie – John Lothian News

In May 2018, Coindesk held its three-day Consensus conference in New York with huge and enthusiastic crowds going crazy over all things blockchain. This week, Coindesk reconvened the cryptocurrency crowd in Midtown Manhattan for Consensus:Invest in the face of very different market fundamentals.

What a year it’s been for cryptocurrencies. The raging bull market that saw Bitcoin rise above $10,000 for the first time almost exactly one year ago today has turned into a monumental rout, with prices down nearly 75 percent since the beginning of the year. In this environment, what could be expected from the conference? Not surprisingly, the number of attendees was down by at least 50 percent but, on the other hand, the level of positive and constructive attitudes was, if anything, higher than it was in the spring. What was going on at Consensus:Invest?

To read the rest of this article, go here

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Saliba’s Execution Fight Gears Up
Spencer Doar – John Lothian News

Anthony Saliba returned to the broker-dealer business in September 2017 by starting Matrix Executions. He had sworn he would never would come back to the space. Saliba had already conquered the challenge as CEO of LiquidPoint – which at its peak handled a fifth of U.S. options flow. Liquidpoint would eventually become apart of Dash Financial Technologies in 2017.

Saliba competes with Dash, fighting a battle with a company that can trace part of its history directly back to him.

Now, he has another vote of confidence in his year old venture as Mishkin, Anderson and Gray Securities (MAGS), operator of market making firm Simplex Trading, “made [him] an offer [he] couldn’t refuse” to become minority owners in Matrix. The deal is pending FINRA approval.

For the rest of the story go here.

****The press release about the deal can be found here.

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Hits & Takes
JLN Staff

The Wall Street Rides FAR charity event has raised roughly $1 million in just four years. (Just because Giving Tuesday was yesterday doesn’t mean you should stop thinking about charitable giving.) ~SD

Who did you donate to on Giving Tuesday? If I get enough responses, I will publish the list of all the charities readers donated to yesterday.~JJL

The CFTC and K-State will host their 2nd annual Agricultural Commodity Futures Conference on April 11-12 in Overland Park, Kansas.~JJL

At FIA Asia, FIA Head of Asia-Pacific Bill Herder paid tribute to UBS and FIA Asia Regional Advisory Board member David Strachan, who passed away earlier this year.~JJL

Leaders from @CMEGroup? ?@EurexGroup? ?? ?@SGX? ?@CBOE? ?@LME_news all participated in the exchange leader panel at FIA Asia.~JJL

At the FIA Asia conference, the audience was polled about Brexit. The view of 42% of the audience at FIA’s Asia conference in Singapore regarding the impact of Brexit on markets is…”The U.K. will reject the Withdrawal Agreement and there will be total chaos.”

An ABC News story on the effect of climate change on the U.S. economy discusses a new report by 13 U.S. Federal agencies that says the Midwest will be particularly hard-hit, “with higher temperatures, drought and flooding contributing to a decline in soybeans and corn — two of the Midwest’s main commodities… As a result, the region could potentially produce less than 75 percent of the corn it currently produces, and lose more than 25 percent of its soybean yield.” ~SR

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Leading Financial Firms to Create Code of Conduct for Digital Asset Markets; Association for Digital Asset Markets Promotes Fair and Orderly Digital Asset Markets
BusinessWire
Today, ten industry-leading financial services and technology firms launched the Association for Digital Asset Markets (ADAM) to establish a code of conduct for emerging digital asset markets. ADAM is the first broad-based organization of its kind in the United States to proactively seek comprehensive standards for digital asset market participants.
/goo.gl/WWL3uU

***Duncan Niederauer is an ADAM advisory board member. ~SR

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Farm bankruptcies surpass Great Recession levels in upper Midwest
Michael Sykes – Axios
An analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that 84 farm operations in the upper Midwest filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy from June 2017 to June 2018.
bit.ly/2FG2v8K

****** Tariffs have casualties.~JJL

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CFTC’s LabCFTC Releases Primer about Smart Contracts; The Primer Helps to Explain Smart Contract Technology and related Risks and Challenges
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s LabCFTC today released, “A CFTC Primer on Smart Contracts.” This primer is part of LabCFTC’s effort to engage with innovators and market participants on a range of financial technology (FinTech) topics, and follows on a 2017 primer on virtual currencies and the agency’s recent FinTech Forward conference.
bit.ly/2FKVfbH

***** The LabCFTC continues to be a bright light and leader in the regulatory world.~JJL

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Adena Friedman Elected as a Class B Director to New York Fed Board of Directors
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that Adena T. Friedman, president and chief executive officer of Nasdaq, Inc., has been elected a Class B director representing Group 2 which consists of banks with capital and surplus between $40 million and $2 billion. Ms. Friedman will fill the unexpired portion of David Cote’s term that ends December 31, 2019.
/nyfed.org/2FJoKuo

****** Adena is Class A in my book.~JJL

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Special Report: Little known to many investors, cryptocurrency reviews are for sale
Anna Irrera, Elizabeth Dilts – Reuterts
When cryptocurrency issuers want positive coverage for their virtual coins, they buy it.
/reut.rs/2FLEk8S

****** This is one reason we launched CryptoMarketsWiki.com, to help weed out the BS and find and share the truth.~JJL

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Friday’s Top Three
Our top three stories of the day were led by Bloomberg’s Nasdaq Plans to Pursue Bitcoin Futures Despite Plunging Prices, Sources Say. Sometimes futures are there to help participants with falling prices. Second went to Craig Pirrong’s column in the
Streetwise Professor, This Is What Happens When You Slip Picking Up Nickels In Front of a Steamroller about OptionSellers.com. Third was the press release from RJO, RJO Futures Named 2018’s Most Trusted Financial Brokerage Firm by Wealth & Finance Magazine – First Futures Brokerage to Win Award

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MarketsWiki Stats
136,312,106 pages viewed; 23,321 pages; 215,550 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

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Lead Stories

Former NYSE CEO to head up crypto code of conduct group
Aaron Hankin – MarketWatch
The digital currency market took another step toward shoring up its reputation on Tuesday with the announcement that a group of crypto-related and financial firms have joined forces to create an industry code of conduct.
/on.mktw.net/2FLB8KH

***** Duncan Niederauer is an excellent choice to lead this. It gives the effort and the whole market much needed credibility.~JJL

To Sniff Out Insider Trading, Follow the Options Market; How algorithmic sleuths use artificial intelligence to expose suspicious activity related to mergers and acquisitions.
Matthew A. Winkler – Bloomberg
Insider trading involves illegal profiting from nonpublic information by people buying and selling shares. It typically increases whenever companies are busy acquiring each other. The 42 percent rise in the Russell 3000 index during the 24 months through September included the most mergers and acquisitions in 12 years. Now the technology that created artificial intelligence is getting good at detecting stock market fluctuations that can only be explained as abnormal, sophisticated and nefarious.
/bloom.bg/2FY7UZd

Cleared British traders put US justice on trial; Staff in London and elsewhere are vulnerable to legal forays, lawyers for trio warn
Katie Martin and Caroline Binham – FT
When they returned to the New York courtroom on October 26, the three British former currencies traders were not expecting a verdict. Their two-week trial, brought by the US Department of Justice, had wrapped up only the previous day.
/on.ft.com/2FNqhQc

The Dangerous Rise of Sponsored Stock Research; Equity research paid for by the companies being analyzed is a big beneficiary of new European regulations
Jon Sindreu – WSJ
New securities-trading rules are having one pernicious side effect on European stock markets: Research is increasingly paid for by those being researched. So-called sponsored research has long been common in the bond market, where ratings firms are paid by firms to grade their credit risk. The European Union’s catchily-named second Market in Financial Instruments Directive, or Mifid II, is helping extend the problem to equities.
/on.wsj.com/2FJnF63

Bitcoin ETFs Roadblocked by Lack of Safeguards, SEC’s Chief Says
Benjamin Bain – Bloomberg
Clayton comments on agencies rejection of bids for listings; Agency staff has expressed concern over potential manipulation
The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that concern over a lack of investor protections makes it unlikely that his agency will approve a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund anytime soon.
/bloom.bg/2FLtUq3

Nasdaq, VanEck Partner to Launch ‘Crypto 2.0’ Futures Contracts
Christine Kim – Coindesk
The second-largest stock exchange in the world is partnering with investment management firm VanEck to bring a host of new cryptocurrency financial products to market.
bit.ly/2FLzOXY

Goldman Still Can’t Hold Clients’ Crypto Assets
Vildana Hajric – Bloomberg
Digital asset head Justin Schmidt comments during conference; Crypto sell-off is ‘healthy’ for ecosystem, Schmidt says
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. isn’t any closer to offering one the key services sought by clients still intrigued by cryptocurrencies amid this year’s collapse in digital-asset prices.
/bloom.bg/2FMBS24

China to designate more financial groups as ‘too big to fail’; Central bank cites international frameworks as model for national regulation
Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai – FT
Chinese regulators are to designate more financial institutions as “systemically important” in their latest move to limit financial risk following a decade-long debt build-up.
/on.ft.com/2FJsb4g

Special Report: Little known to many investors, cryptocurrency reviews are for sale
Anna Irrera, Elizabeth Dilts – Reuters
When cryptocurrency issuers want positive coverage for their virtual coins, they buy it.
/goo.gl/VRhFhK

****Beware – it’s not just consumer goods being hawked by social media influencers! This special report is well worth the 15 minute read. (Btw, Reuters fintech correspondent Anna Irrera was a speaker at our MarketsWikiEducation event in NY two years back.)~SD

Russia broker BCS targets ‘broader church’ with synthetic prime plan
Marc Jones – Reuters
Russia’s largest stockbroker BCS hopes to open the country’s financial markets to a “broader church” of foreign investors, from hedge funds to retail buyers, with a new trading product.
/goo.gl/nW1eHe

****As BCS’ leadership notes, clients’ activities under this plan are still subject to the whims of global sanctions. So it seems only right that this was announced right as the situation in Ukraine flares back up again…~SD

Equity Derivatives: Buyside Usage in Asia-Pacific Survey data shows use of strategies and products in the region
Patrick Fay – MarketVoice
Each year, EQDerivatives conducts a “market mapping” analysis of the global equity and volatility derivatives market, including its potential for growth in the coming years. The analysis is based on the views of buyside firms around the globe: asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds, private banks, family offices and insurance companies. The findings and analysis provide a map of how equity and volatility derivatives are deployed by managers globally, as well as the
types of listed and over-the-counter derivatives that they tend to use most frequently.
/goo.gl/wEzqKK

Corners of Wall Street remain undeterred by crypto crash; Mainstream finance is experimenting with digital tokens despite bitcoin tumble
Philip Stafford in London – FT
A student tower block near the University of South Carolina’s campus in Columbia makes for an unlikely monument to the confidence some still harbour that digital currencies will eventually loosen Wall Street’s grip on financial services.
/on.ft.com/2FNEHjn

Exclusive: China not seriously considering U.S. Treasuries as trade war weapon – envoy
Reuters
China’s ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday he does not believe Beijing is seriously considering using its massive U.S. Treasury debt holdings as a weapon in the U.S.-China trade war, citing concerns that such a move would destabilize financial markets.
/reut.rs/2FUPUim

Exclusive: China envoy warns of dire consequences if U.S. hardliners hold sway
David Brunnstrom, David Lawder, Matt Spetalnick – Reuters
China is going to this week’s G-20 summit hoping for a deal to ease a damaging trade war with the United States, Beijing’s ambassador to Washington said on Tuesday, while warning of dire consequences if U.S. hardliners try to separate the world’s two largest economies.
/reut.rs/2FIojAv

Paul Volcker’s Wisdom for America’s Rigged Economy
John Cassidy – The New Yorker
If the United States continues on its current course of division, dysfunction, and decline, Paul Volcker won’t be to blame. Since retiring, in 1987, from his position as the chairman of the Federal Reserve, where he had engineered a painful but successful effort to bring down inflation, the six-foot-seven-inch native of Teaneck, New Jersey, has spent much of the past thirty-odd years devoting his formidable energy to public service, most recently as a proponent of stricter regulation of banks. Now, at the age of ninety-one, Volcker has published a memoir that is ultimately a cri de coeur from a patriotic American.
bit.ly/2TQzMBm

Day trader denies friend at UBS leaked insider information; Court hears Walid Choucair made £1.4m profit trading in Kabel Deutschland before takeover
Caroline Binham in London – FT
A day trader has denied that there was any connection between his friend at UBS accessing confidential deal information and his trading in the stock some minutes later.
/on.ft.com/2FLF1iI

Biggest Pay Raise on Wall Street Goes to Stock Derivatives Traders; Increasingly choppy markets are proving to be a boon to these traders at the biggest banks
Telis Demos and Gunjan Banerji – WSJ
As markets get wilder, some Wall Street traders are getting richer. The return of volatility might be making many rank-and-file investors queasy, but it is proving to be a boon to some trading desks at the biggest banks.
/on.wsj.com/2FMYteL

Exchanges, OTC and Clearing

Euronext appoints Isabel Ucha as CEO of Euronext Lisbon and CEO of Interbolsa
Euronext
Euronext announced today that the Supervisory Board has nominated Isabel Ucha as CEO of Euronext Lisbon, CEO of Interbolsa and member of the Managing Board of Euronext N.V., starting 1 January 2019, subject to formal appointment by an Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting of Euronext N.V. and the usual regulatory non-objections. This decision follows Paulo Rodrigues da Silva’s resignation from his position as CEO of Euronext Lisbon. Paulo Rodrigues da Silva will leave the company at the end of this year to pursue personal projects, in the field of entrepreneurship and academia.
bit.ly/2FLBhOf

Ice changing margin model for move into options; CCP aims for Q1 2019 roll-out of new Monte Carlo-based methodology as it plans launch of index swaptions
Tom Osborn, James Ryder – Risk.net
Ice Clear Credit has received regulatory approval to switch from its stress-based initial margin methodology to one based on Monte Carlo simulations – a step, the clearer says, that paves the way for it to launch clearing for options on credit default swaps (CDS) indexes.
/goo.gl/qSjQ1w

The World Federation Of Exchanges & African Securities Exchanges Association Sign MoU
World Federation of Exchanges
The World Federation of Exchanges (“WFE”), the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA), aimed at supporting the development of the wider African capital market.
bit.ly/2FVyT7k

PepsiCo to Transfer Listing of Debt Securities to Nasdaq
MarketWatch
PepsiCo, Inc. PEP, +0.50% today announced it will be transferring the securities exchange listing for its 2.500% Senior Notes due 2022, 1.750% Senior Notes due 2021, 2.625% Senior Notes due 2026 and 0.875% Senior Notes due 2028 (collectively, the “debt securities”) from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq Bond Exchange effective December 7, 2018 after market close. The debt securities are expected to begin trading as Nasdaq-listed securities on December 10, 2018. Their respective trading symbols and CUSIP numbers are as follows:
/on.mktw.net/2TRGSVZ

IEX Group, Inc. Announces Senior Appointments to Drive New Ventures; Joe Hipps to develop new analytics business and Prerak Sanghvi to lead ventures technology as company expands into new growth areas
IEX
IEX Group, Inc. announced two senior appointments, Joseph (Joe) Hipps and Prerak Sanghvi, to help capitalize on strategic growth opportunities outside of the company’s core stock exchange business.
bit.ly/2TQap2v

NSE and SGX may soon launch Nifty index from IFSC
ETMarkets.com|
The arbitration process involving the NSE and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) has been deferred and the two bourses are a step closer to launching Nifty index from IFSC, Gift City, sources told ET Now on Monday.
bit.ly/2FY9pqj

Euronext welcomes SCISYS
Euronext
Euronext today welcomes the SCISYS Group PLC (“SCISYS” or the “Company”), a leading supplier of bespoke software systems, IT-based solutions and support services to the Media & Broadcast, Space, Government, Defence and Commercial sectors, on its admission to trading on our Enterprise Securities Market in Dublin[1].
bit.ly/2FNg1HM

360T sets sights on becoming FX one-stop shop
Eurex
This week, 360T has been awarded in the categories “Best professional e-trading venue” and “Best vendor for dealing technology” at the 2018 FX Week Best Banks Awards. On this occasion, FX Week conducted an interview with Carlo Kölzer, CEO of 360T and global head of FX at Deutsche Börse Group, about pushing forward his plans for 360T to become a one-stop shop for FX.
bit.ly/2FGWQ2e

The rise of TRFs – how funds use them to generate alpha
Eurex
Hedge funds and traditional institutional investors are increasingly turning to total return futures (TRFs) to get exposure to the repo market related to an underlying index such as the EURO STOXX 50® Index. Antoine Deix, Senior Equity Derivatives Strategist at BNP Paribas, discusses how firms are currently using TRFs, the benefits they gain compared with total return swaps (TRS) or index futures, and how he sees the space developing in the next year.
bit.ly/2FOJSzx

TMX Group Announces 2018 Investor Day
TMX
TMX Group today announced it will hold its 2018 Investor Day on Thursday, November 29, 2018 in Toronto. The agenda will include presentations from Lou Eccleston, CEO, and other senior leaders who will discuss TMX’s “Roadmap for Growth”.
bit.ly/2FIOpDH

MTS and BondCliQ launch liquidity visualization tool
London Stock Exchange Group
New tool on the BondTiQ platform allows users to map US corporate bond liquidity; Powered by MTS BondsPro’s deep, real-time pricing information
MTS Markets International, part of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), and BondCliQ, a corporate bond market data solution, have launched Liquidity Mapping for BondCliQ’s BondTiQ platform.
bit.ly/2FMZLX9

Exchange of the year/exchange innovation of the year: CME Group; Risk Awards 2019: FX Link, SOFR futures and Nex acquisition headline banner year for Chicago bourse
Risk staff
For most derivatives exchanges, the ability to navigate sudden volatility bursts constituted success in 2018. For CME Group, it was a year for reimagining the role of the world’s largest derivatives trading venue against a changing regulatory backdrop.
bit.ly/2FGXyMW

Fintech

QuantHouse appoints new COO and CTO; Emmanuel Carjat joins as COO with Denery Fenouil returning as CTO to help drive continued global growth and transformation
QuantHouse
QuantHouse, the independent global provider of high performance systematic trading solutions including innovative market data services, algo development tools and global network infrastructure, today announced the appointments of Emmanuel Carjat as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Denery Fenouil as Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
bit.ly/2FMGipM

CloudMargin Named “Collateral Management and Optimisation Product of the Year” at Risk.net Markets Technology Awards 2019
CloudMargin
CloudMargin, creator of the world’s first and only collateral and margin management solution native to the cloud, announced today that its platform has been named Collateral Management and Optimisation Product of the Year at the Risk.net Markets Technology Awards 2019. CloudMargin Chief Operating Officer Steven Marconi accepted the award at a ceremony last night in London during the magazine’s flagship Risk Awards event.
bit.ly/2FLB39O

Bloomberg Makes Real-Time Data Available On The Cloud; Efficient delivery of comprehensive market data enables front office to accelerate time to value
Markets Insider
Bloomberg announced today that its flagship real-time market data feed, B-PIPE, is now available on the cloud, offering customers a high-performance solution that delivers instant and reliable access to crucial trading data.
/read.bi/2TNq6aC

Facebook faces threat of tough international regulation
MPs from nine countries criticise Mark Zuckerberg for refusing to be questioned
Aliya Ram in London and Hannah Kuchler in San Francisco – FT
Facebook is facing threats of co-ordinated regulation after it was attacked by lawmakers from nine countries on Tuesday and accused of having lost public trust.
/on.ft.com/2FJqi7V

Revolut, a $1.7 billion UK fintech, has big plans to enter US market
Callum Burroughs – Business Insider
A UK app-based banking alternative valued at $1.7 billion has plans to grow even bigger. Just three years old, it’s hitting the US early next year to continue its rapid expansion.
Revolut, founded in 2015 by a developer, Vlad Yatsenko, and former trader Nikolay Storonsky, already has 3.2 million customers and the company boasts that it has long waiting lists outside Europe. Dubbed “the Amazon of banking,” Revolut’s success has reportedly lured a potential $500 million investment from Japan’s SoftBank.
/read.bi/2FMFQru

Fintech Compliance Officer
Lexology (Mexico)
Rules issued by the National Banking and Securities Commission (“CNBV”) require fintech companies to appoint a compliance officer to establish procedures to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism. This compliance officer must be an employee of the fintech company and must be certified by the CNBV. This certification must be renewed every 5 years.
bit.ly/2FMx5Od

TD Ameritrade announces three finalists in its first fintech competition
Sarah Min – InvestmentNews
TD Ameritrade Institutional announced three finalists Tuesday in its first fintech competition, called Innovation Quest, spotlighting new tools in risk assessment, financial literacy and voice-activated assistance.
The three finalists, chosen from 135 eligible submissions, each won $25,000 and a trip to TD Ameritrade’s National LINC conference in February 2019, where the top winner will be announced. The finalists will have to present video and live proof-of-concept presentations in front of a panel of judges and approximately 2,000 registered investment advisers at the San Diego event.
bit.ly/2FMZ3sX

Cryptocurrencies

The Death of Exchange 1.0 and Advent of Digital Exchange 2.0: More Than Just the Matching Engine
Hirander Misra, GMEX – Tabb Forum
It seems like every other day there is a new announcement about yet another initiative wanting to become the next game-changing institutional crypto exchange. But the majority of these exchanges, while advocating decentralization, are still centralized, and the exchange construct essentially is no different now than it was decades ago. A matching engine does not make a digital exchange solution; managing wallets securely and ensuring trusted custody and settlement of these digital assets is the real innovation.
/goo.gl/AmGDpw

Breakingviews – Crypto disruptors want a hug from Wall St
Tom Buerkle – Reuters
“Do you have a state ID?” That’s the first question you hear when picking up credentials to enter Consensus: Invest, a cryptocurrency conference where the sector’s libertarian, anti-establishment ethos used to reign. After an 80 percent collapse in the price of bitcoin over the past year, digital currency enthusiasts are rethinking old assumptions and looking for support wherever they can find it.
/reut.rs/2FLEBJ8

Top US financial regulator pours more cold water on the one thing Bitcoin investors need right now
Sam Jacobs – Business Insider
A Bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) looks unlikely to be approved by US regulators anytime soon.
bit.ly/2FJ4dGs

Coinbase Quietly Opened Its OTC Crypto Trading Desk This Month
Yogita Khatri – Coindesk
U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase opened its over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trading desk earlier this month.
bit.ly/2FLuO5V

Fidelity’s once-dormant crypto VC fund is back in action
Frank Chaparro – The Block Crypto
Fidelity Investments’ crypto venture fund is back in action. The $2.5 trillion money manager made a big splash in the cryptocurrency world recently when it announced it was launching Fidelity Digital Assets, a custody and execution services business for digital assets. However, it turns out that’s not the firm’s only cryptocurrency operation.
bit.ly/2FKVjbr

Andreessen Horowitz-backed Harbor kicks off security token platform | 10 crypto firms are forming a new group to bring order to the digital asset market | Nasdaq is preparing to launch futures for bitcoin next year
The Block Crypto
Harbor has officially launched its platform to tokenize private securities, the firm announced Tuesday. And it’s kicking things off with the sale of a tokenized real estate investment trust representing a stake in a $20 million mega-dorm.
bit.ly/2FJ2np2

Crypto Fraudsters’ Friend? Treasury’s Top Lawyer, Congressional Blockchain Caucus Leader Diverge
Ted Knutson – Forbes
The Treasury Department’s Top Lawyer Brent McIntosh put out a warning to the cryptocurrency industry today: “We are not going to sit by while crypto becomes a safe haven for illicit finance. It is not a place where you should feel free to rip off mom and pop investors.”
bit.ly/2FNcr0t

Cryptocurrencies to survive sell-off – Allianz’s El-Erian
Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss – Reuters
Cryptocurrencies are here to stay despite a prolonged slump this year, and will gain wider acceptance after the recent entry of more institutional investors in the space, Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, said on Tuesday.
/reut.rs/2FKYOi5

Mike Novogratz’s Crypto Trading Desk Lost $136 Million in Nine Months
Eric Lam – Bloomberg
The bad year for traders at Mike Novogratz’s cryptocurrency merchant bank got even worse in the third quarter — and that was before the market fell out of bed this month.
/bloom.bg/2FJ6QIk

Winklevoss twins’ push for SEC’s bitcoin fund approval in limbo
Kevin Dugan – NY Post
The Winklevoss twins probably won’t be getting a bitcoin boost this year. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the Harvard-educated brothers who claimed to have helped invent Facebook, have been looking to launch the world’s first exchange-traded fund, or ETF, backed by bitcoin.
/nyp.st/2FKkL0P

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley go live with CLS blockchain service; CLSNet operates on a distributed ledger technology platform for automated bilateral payment netting of FX trades.
Hayley McDowell – The Trade
US investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have gone live with CLS’s automated bilateral payment netting service that operates on a blockchain technology platform.
bit.ly/2FNidzb

Politics

Trump on climate change: ‘People like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence but we’re not necessarily such believers.’; ‘I don’t believe it’: Trump reacts to report that says climate change impacts economy
Josh Dawsey, Philip Rucker, Brady Dennis, Chris Mooney – Washington Post
President Trump on Tuesday dismissed a landmark report compiled by 13 federal agencies detailing how damage from global warming is intensifying throughout the country, saying he is not among the “believers” who see climate change as a pressing problem.
/wapo.st/2FLDDwu

Donald Trump may come to regret cheap oil; Lower prices discourage US companies from drilling new wells in West Texas shale
Brendan Greeley – FT
The day before Thanksgiving, US president Donald Trump thanked the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for making oil cheaper. “Like a big tax cut for America,” is how he described it.
/on.ft.com/2FKTkE1

U.S. envoy to Britain says Brexit is for the British to decide: The Times
Reuters
The U.S. ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, said that Britain’s exit from the European Union is for the British people to decide, but the United States remains keen to work out a trade deal with the UK, The Times reported on Tuesday, citing an essay written by Johnson for the newspaper.
/reut.rs/2FMDoBi

Trump says ‘not even a little bit happy’ with Fed’s Powell: report
Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday kept up his criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, saying rising interest rates and other Fed policies were damaging the U.S. economy, the Washington Post said.
/reut.rs/2FOHQzp

America is facing a leadership crisis. It’s on us to fix it
General Stanley McChrystal for CNN Business Perspectives
We’re facing a leadership crisis in America. We’ve become increasingly obsessed with what national leader we’re for or against. President Trump is just the most bombastic example of this phenomenon, which has been playing out for decades. Our affiliation, or opposition, to a particular leader (and especially our current leader) is the closest thing we have to a common experience.
/cnn.it/2FL0xUB

Brussels buoyed by built-in advantage in future Brexit talks; Political cliff-edges threaten disruption to UK unless it gives up key bargaining chips
Alex Barker in Brussels – FT
With EU leaders’ representatives gathered around him, the European Commission’s top civil servant offered a frank assessment of trade talks with Britain after Brexit.
/on.ft.com/2FJ7s0A

Regulation

French watchdog calls for rethink of research rules
David Keohane and Philip Stafford – The Financial Times
The French markets watchdog is calling for a rethink of the European markets rules that split share trading from analyst research earlier this year.
Robert Ophèle, chairman of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, told the Financial Times it was “absolutely clear” that some rules introduced in the EU’s recent investor protection law would have to be reviewed to account for Brexit.
/goo.gl/agrVTH

Danske Bank scandal spurs UK crackdown on limited partnerships; Legislation on way to control structures dubbed money-laundering vehicle of choice
Caroline Binham and George Parker in London – FT
The British government is to tighten century-old rules around corporate structures blamed for facilitating “money-laundering on an industrial scale” and for playing a key role in the world’s biggest dirty-money scandal.
/on.ft.com/2FVDrdU

CFTC opposes eFloorTrade’s attempt to convince NY Court to reconsider summary judgment; The CFTC argues that eFloorTrade’s attempt to make the Court reconsider its judgment is totally meritless.
Finance Feeds
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has opposed a motion by introducing broker eFloorTrade and the firm’s owner John Moore for reconsideration of a summary judgment against the defendants.
bit.ly/2FNFfWt

CFTC and K-State to Host 2nd Agricultural Commodity Futures Conference
AgCon2019 set for April 11-12
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Center for Risk Management Education and Research (CRMER) at Kansas State University will host AgCon2019, the 2nd annual agricultural commodity futures conference on April 11-12 in Overland Park, Kansas.
bit.ly/2FLHf1y

UK and IEA call for carbon capture push to meet climate targets; The world needs new CCUS solutions as carbon emissions set to reach historic highs
Claire Perry and Fatih Birol – FT
The recent report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provided a stark reminder about the need for action on climate change.
/on.ft.com/2FUSLYC

Firms must notify ASIC of their AFCA membership by end of November before late fees apply
ASIC
Financial firms who are members of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) must notify ASIC of their AFCA membership by Friday 30 November 2018.
bit.ly/2FGX5ua

Cybersecurity: Managed Money Needs to Be Supervised Money
Thales.com
Cybersecurity has quickly come to the forefront of the regulatory landscape. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have recently issued fines to commodity pool operators and investment advisors(ers) (collectively, along with commodity trading advisors, “Advisors”) as well as a futures commission merchant relating to cybersecurity. Additionally, the CFTC has indicated that Advisors who rely upon third-party service providers to address their cyber security needs cannot take a hands-off approach to cybersecurity; they must diligently monitor and supervise their own systems and accounts, the provision of such third-party services and such third-parties’ own defenses and vulnerabilities.
bit.ly/2FUUoFI

Investing and Trading

The Next Big Fee Trend?
Julie Segal – Institutional Investor
Fidelity’s high-profile move to offer no-fee index funds is shaking up asset management, this time in the institutional market. Institutional investors are using Fidelity’s recent launch of no-fee funds for retail investors to negotiate hard for their own fee deals. Quantitative firm Analytic Investors, which Wells Fargo Asset Management acquired in 2016, and other asset managers are feeling the pressure to eliminate base management fees — or keep them very low — and instead charge performance fees.
/goo.gl/gWBU9w

Methanol’s U.S. Revival and Global Growth Scenarios
Gregor Spilker – CME Group
The methanol industry is an exciting phase of growth – U.S. production capacity is expanding rapidly, and global demand is set to increase over the coming years. With various uses across petrochemicals and energy markets, methanol economics are complex. Demand for methanol is influenced by many factors; and it competes against other feedstock for olefins production, as a maritime fuel, for blending in biofuels, etc. CME Group will support the market with the launch of financial contracts. European Methanol futures are already trading on NYMEX, and the exchange is now introducing an FOB Houston contract for the U.S. markets.
/goo.gl/ZmxADt

How to Profit From Wall Street Crash With ETFs
Sanghamitra Saha – Zacks
Probably nothing went right on Nov 20 with tech stocks tanking, each of the FAANG stocks slipping into bear market, global growth worries coming at the forefront, oil prices taking a dive and sharp selloffs in cryptocurrency market (read: Are We Headed Toward Bear Market? ETFs to Save Your Portfolio).
bit.ly/2FNHwAZ

Fed vice-chair says monetary policy must account for changing data; Richard Clarida backs gradual tightening while flagging uncertainty ahead
Sam Fleming in Washington – FT
The Federal Reserve will need to be especially attuned to fluctuations in economic data as it gauges how much further to lift short-term interest rates, a senior US central banker has said.
/on.ft.com/2FMJfGS

This Scholar Says the Government Should Buy Stocks When They Plunge; Economist Roger Farmer says “it’s just a question of when” they start to do it.
Peter Coy – Bloomberg
Last week, my Bloomberg colleague Moxy Ying in Hong Kong wrote a fascinating QuickTake headlined, “When Stocks Crash, China Turns to its ‘National Team.'” She explained that government-related entities in China, known informally as the national team, step in to buy shares of mainland-based companies on a large scale to stop market routs. “Worry not, Chinese stockholders, the ‘national team’ is here to (try to) save the day,” she wrote.
/bloom.bg/2FILCKJ

Commodity trader Gunvor to adopt UN human rights principles
Neil Hume, Natural Resources Editor – FT
Geneva-based energy trader Gunvor Group is to adopt United Nations principles on human rights, the latest move by the industry to respond to criticisms about its environmental and social record.
/on.ft.com/2FIqGmT

Institutions

Deutsche Bank mulls shake-up of high-level executives: WSJ
Reuters
Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) is planning a high-level shake up that could result in the departure of top executives central to its relationships with key regulators in the United States and Europe, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
/reut.rs/2FIJjY5

EU trading rules drive consolidation for UK brokers; New rules mean equity research spending has fallen and smaller brokers are becoming acquisition targets
David Wighton – Financial News London
For the City’s smaller brokers and research houses, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news for deal-starved brokers is that a wave of mergers and acquisitions is looming. The bad news is that they themselves are the targets.
/goo.gl/Htwn6R

Hedge Funds Got What they Wanted, to Their Cost; Volatility was supposed to be a boon for performance. It wasn’t, and the industry has a problem.
Mark Gilbert – Bloomberg
This is turning out to be a year most hedge fund managers would prefer to forget, with the asset class on track for its worst performance in seven years. And if it fails to prove its mettle in what should be more favorable market conditions next year, the industry may lose any remaining credibility for its claim to deliver sufficient alpha in any market weather to justify its out-sized fees.
/bloom.bg/2FNqKlq

BGC Partners Announces Distribution Ratio for Spin-Off of Newmark
BGC Partners, Inc. , Newmark Group, Inc.
BGC Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: BGCP) (“BGC Partners”, “BGC”, or the “Company”), a leading global brokerage and financial technology company, today announced that it had determined the final distribution ratio relating to its previously announced distribution of all of the shares of Newmark Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NMRK) (“Newmark”) held by the Company to stockholders of BGC.1 The Company will distribute these Newmark shares through a special pro rata stock dividend (the “Spin-Off” or “Distribution”).
/prn.to/2FLGntO

Regions

Chinese Metals Win U.S. Tariff Waivers With Little Resistance; Stacks of aluminum ingots in Wuxi, China. President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs were aimed at reducing the flow of cheap imports from countries like China.
Jim Tankersley – NY Times
When Mandel Metals, an aluminum distributor outside Chicago, found its business threatened by President Trump’s tariffs on foreign metals, it filed hundreds of requests with the administration to exclude its imports from the levies.
/nyti.ms/2FVBQoq

Could Australia Become Cashless Before The UK?
Madhvi Mavadiya – Forbes
Those of us who attended the LendIt conference this year in London would have heard former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne reveal that he regretted not pushing forward with a cashless economy initiative while he held the post.
bit.ly/2FMVjYr

Commodity Woes Run Deeper Than China; The commodity selloff should worry investors, but not because of China per se
Just a China Problem?
Nathaniel Taplin – WSJ
China is the world’s heavyweight consumer of most industrial commodities. So when things go wrong in commodity markets, it’s always tempting to point the finger at it. This time, that might be a mistake.
/on.wsj.com/2FIJ7Il

Saudi Aramco eyes $150bn of gas investments; State energy group wants to more than double output and become exporter, chief says
Anjli Raval, Senior Energy Correspondent – FT
Saudi Aramco’s drive to increase gas output and become an exporter will spur $150bn worth of investments over the next decade, according to the state energy group’s chief executive.
/on.ft.com/2FVzExc

Brexit

U.K. GDP Would Suffer 10.7% Hit in Worst Case No-Deal Brexit
Jess Shankleman and Tim Ross – Bloomberg
Government publishes economic analysis of Brexit options; Report says U.K. will be poorer under all Brexit scenarios
The U.K. will suffer a major economic hit if Parliament rejects Theresa May’s Brexit deal and the country crashes out of the European Union with no new trade arrangements in place, according to official analysis.
/bloom.bg/2FLCXas

Britain clears trade hurdle ahead of Brexit; WTO members give ‘provisional’ support to UK membership of 47-country procurement pact
Jim Brunsden in Brussels – FT
The UK’s efforts to prepare for post-Brexit trade received a boost on Tuesday, when nations at the World Trade Organization backed the country’s continuing membership of a $1.7tn public procurement pact.
/on.ft.com/2FNaqBg

Miscellaneous

E. Matthew “Whiz” Buckley of Top Gun Options Honored as “Hero Among Us” at Florida Panthers Game
PRNewswire
The Florida Panthers honored retired Navy fighter pilot, Lieutenant E. Matthew “Whiz” Buckley during the Panthers’ 7 PM home game versus the New Jersey Devils Monday, November 26th as part of their “Heroes Among Us” program.
/on.mktw.net/2FLFIbO

What a twinkly beard can teach you about investing; Investment value can be hard to find — but don’t worry, the Santa Rally is on its way
Moira O’Neill – FT
This season’s must-have accessory is multicoloured Christmas lights for your beard, or the beard of the man in your life. But at around £10, how do you determine if it is good value? It depends how much you want a twinkly beard in your life, and if there is a beard around to accessorise.
/on.ft.com/2FLIw8Q

Why Charities Do Good—but Not Well—With Your Money; Nonprofits returned an average of 6.7% annually in 2009-16, study shows, underperforming even Treasurys; still, ‘These portfolios aren’t designed to beat the market’
Jason Zweig – WSJ
Charitable giving is on a lot of people’s minds this time of year. It’s worth noting that while many nonprofits promote great causes, few are great at managing money.
/on.wsj.com/2FMKypg

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