Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Welcome to the John Lothian News daily Update podcast for May 10, 2024. I'm your host, John Lothian. This podcast is brought to you by John Lothian News, the home of Marketswickie and Marketswicky Education. Thank you for joining us. Here are the hits and takes comments from today's GLN I want to apologize to incubex chairman Neil Eckert for taking so long to publish the videos we published today. There are too many reasons to list why they were delayed. We shot this in 2023 as part of the history of environmental trading historical video series. Both parts of the two part video are released today. In this one post on johnlotheanews.com yesterday I created a new editorial workflow spreadsheet for JLN and listed all of the unpublished videos, podcasts, and print stories we have in the works that I could find. There were 49 projects listed, which included 20 Boca videos before the one we published today, 18 OIC videos, four news videos for John Lothian, profile videos, and more. Needless to say, Patrick Lothian and Robbie Lothian have a lot of work to do. Plus I am headed to London for IDX to shoot a bunch more there. I hope we are going to try to speed up publication of these projects to lighten the backlog.
[00:01:34] Looking at the statistics from johnlothiannews.com over the past twelve months, the top ten countries coming into the site are the US, China, Russia, UK, Germany, Singapore, India, Australia, Canada, and Hong Kong. Over the last week, the top five cities coming into johnlothewnews.com have included such places as Ashburn, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC. That that was the top site not set was number two. Strangely, Coffeyville, Kansas, is number three. It is a small town in southeastern Montgomery County, Kansas, Chicago and Los Angeles round out the top five. Tradeier is hosting a free virtual options summit on May 22 at 10:00 a.m. Estimated. Designed to help participants navigate market volatility and enhance their understanding of options trading. The event, sponsored by CBO, features twelve speakers across an eight hour schedule covering topics such as timing trades during volatility, using options for portfolio protection, and spotting opportunities in fast paced markets. Notable sessions including a keynote by Trader CEO Dan Raju, insights into bot trading from Kirk Duplessis of option alpha, and an exploration of the vix curve by Andrew Giovannasi. Other highlights include strategies from Rob Hoffman, Mandy Zhu on navigating volatile markets, as well as insights into thriving during volatility from Marcus Heikkacher and Louis Silva. The summit will conclude with discussions on the impact of technology on finance and closing statements from Dan Raju and Lex Lutheranhausen. Also, CibO Global Markets and Maturus advisors yesterday announced their collaboration to launch three new us equity indices by the end of 2024. The CBO US large cap 100 index, CBO US large cap lead 50 index and CBO US large cap lag 50 index. These indices will leverage cbos expertise in derivatives based indices and Maturus dynamic reassignment technology. Additionally, plans are underway to develop tradable futures products based on these indices, pending regulatory approval. It's official I'm not one of the smartest people in the room, at least according to the standards of Ben Cohen of the Wall Street Journal, who today wrote, the smartest people in the room are all listening to the same podcast. The sub headline for the story is how did acquired become the business world's favorite show? Cohen writes. It's a wonky podcast about business history and strategy, with four hour episodes that drop once a month, and people from Silicon Valley to Wall street are completely obsessed with it. My question is, if I start to listen to the podcast, do I become one of the smartest people in the room?
[00:04:51] The New York Post has a highly valuable story, especially for single guys, titled how to find out if a woman is a psychopath? There's one obvious tell, experts say. According to the story, using an automated detection algorithm, their research team determined that women who hold their heads perfectly still or with minimal movement while in conversation possess high levels of psychopathic propensities. No similar story on psychopathic guys was found in today's New York Post. Ladies, remember to wiggle your head. Mark Yallup is starting a new position as co founder and deputy chair at Quantex, he shared on LinkedIn. Yallop previously served as UK group chief executive at UBS and group COO at ICAP. I am headed today for a medical procedure to use radio frequency ablation to burn the nerves between the sets in my lower back that are compressed and causing me back pain. I've had this procedure a couple of times before and it worked well. Amazingly, the burn nerves grow back about 1 year, so the procedure has to be repeated from time to time. Quantitative futurist Amy Webb headlines the conversation on the latest episode of Breen Brown's podcast, Unlocking us. Brown and Webb discuss the three technologies that make up the supercycle that is occurring right now, artificial intelligence, wearable devices, and biotechnology. On the podcast, Webb says, we are collectively gen t transition. Everybody alive today is going to go through an unprecedented amount of change faster than we are probably capable of managing. The reaction is going to be to think very short term and to not be a futurist. But now the answer is to engage both sides of the mind. Think fast and slow. Listen to the podcast with the link in today's newsletter. Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options, where retail traders are using zero DTE options again, and this is what they're doing for Market watch. Hedge funds pile into option Betsy will weaken back to 160 from Bloomberg and Miami International holdings reports trading results for April 2024 from Myx. Subscribe to the free JLN Options newsletter with a link in today's JLN. Here are more stories from the first reads section of today's JLN. Here's the videos mentioned earlier. Incubex chairman Neil Eckert discusses the evolution of environmental markets in an early 2023 interview with John Lothian. News for the video series the history of environmental trading, Neil Eckert, the chairman of Incubec, shared his insights on the growth and the future potential of environmental markets. The interview is in two parts, with one part initially focusing on Eckert's background and the career progression that led him to partner with doctor Richard Sandor to start the Chicago Climate Exchange. You can watch these videos on johnlithiannews.com. Here's our second video. This is from our Fia Boca coverage. Don Byron of FIA discusses efforts to enhance interoperability and standardization in derivatives markets at the FIA International Futures Conference in Boca Raton, Florida, in March, Don Byron, senior vice president at FIA, discussed the organizations initiatives to address interoperability challenges and drive standardization across derivatives markets. Byron spoke to John Lilly News as part of the JLN industry leader video series sponsored by Wedbush. You can watch this video on johnlothianews.com. Here's a story from Crane Chicago business the headline LaSalle Street, West Loop offices rife with vacancy are in play. A handful of downtown office building with lots of empty space are in position to be sold or seized by lenders at sharp discounts to their pre pandemic values. More data points showing the malaise of the local office.
[00:09:19] Among the group is a mostly empty 16 story office building at 550 West Washington, which owner MetLife has hired brokerage Jones Lange LaSalle to sell, according to a marketing flyer. A venture of New York based MetLife bought the building just west of the Ogilvy Transportation center for $111 million when it was almost full in 2013, a stark difference from just 31% leased today after the recent departure of anchor tenant CME group. My comment losing an anchor tenant like the CME group would hurt any building. Here's another story, this one from Bloomberg. The headline Beverly Hills 90210 mansions lose fire coverage as insurers flee State Farm is discontinuing fire insurance policies in wealthy California areas. It's part of a nationwide trend fueled by climate change.
[00:10:19] Peter Mac was closing the sale of a home in the Hollywood Hills, a four bedroom, five bath estate with an infinity pool perched above the lights of Los Angeles. The new house had been on the market for two years, with the price tumbling to 25.6 million from an original listing of 48 million. But before the final sign off in February, Mac presented the buyer with a fire insurance quote $200,000 a year. She almost fell off her chair, said Mac, a broker with the agency. She wanted to renegotiate my comment. We need a congressional task force on insurance to look at new ways to make this work for people. The whole idea of insurance, mutualized risk. Maybe we need a bigger pie to mutualize the risk and the proper incentives for pie making. Here's another story from Bloomberg. The headline undeveloped arctic land the size of Manhattan, lists for 323 million. The 14,830 acre lot plot in Svalbard, halfway between Norway and the North Pole, is consequential to the climate geopolitics. All bidders are welcome in the high Arctic, a Manhattan sized piece of land with geopolitical implications has hit the market for €300 million, or $323 million. The sale comes as the Arctic experienced its warmest summer in 2023 and the Svalbard region has had less ice, more rain and higher temperatures because of climate change. The sea ice loss is a boon to Russia, which has been gaining access to additional shipping routes and energy reserves as the territory opens up. My comment $24 worth of beads and cloth won't buy you this plot of land. Here's another story from Bloomberg. The severe solar storm threatens power grids and navigation systems US issues its first severe storm warning since January 2005.
[00:12:40] Large sunspot is responsible for this week's solar bursts. A severe solar storm this weekend threatens to trigger blackouts, disrupt navigation systems and knock out high frequency radios around the world. This is the first time since January 2005 the US Weather Prediction center has issued a g four geomagnetic storm watch, the second highest on a five step scale, as multiple waves of solar energy bear down on the planet. Five eruptions of material from the suns atmosphere are forecast to arrive starting late on Friday and persist through Sunday.
[00:13:27] Watches at this level are very rare, the Space Weather Prediction center said, I believe a tin hat is in order for a solar burst. Here's another story, this one from the Washington Post. The headline in photos the scene after storms caused damage across the US, tornadoes have hit the United States every day for two weeks straight. The non stop barrage of storminess has culminated in multiple deadly tornado outbreaks.
[00:14:01] In the first video of Neil Eckert today, he mentions that 2005 was a historical year as we ran through the Alphabet of hurricane names for the first time. He also said that he could tell the impact of climate change by reading the balance sheet of his insurance company. Insurance companies feel the impact of climate change and things like storms, tornadoes and hurricanes like a canary in the coal mine, which was a question I asked him. Here are the top three stories from Thursday's JLN our top story Thursday was the New York magazines the package king of Miami, Matthew Bergwal was a gifted coder who could have gotten a job at any tech company. He decided to go in another direction. Second was the Mayek's press release. Miami International holdings reports trading results for April 2024. 3rd was the webpage for hot topics and current trends in federal criminal law, an event from the Federal Bar association of Chicago taking place Thursday, May 16. Here are the top three stories from the lead section of today's JLN. The first story is from the New York Times. The headline failed crop rattled the chocolate industry. Then speculators came after a production shortfall in West Africa. Cocoa prices rose to $4,000 a metric ton from 2500. Then they went nuts. A failed crop, followed by a wave of financial speculation, put cocoa prices on a roller coaster this year, rattling an industry reliant on inexpensive crops and labor. This is not how things normally go in the cocoa market. For much of the past decade, the price of cocoa in one key global benchmark hovered around $2,500 per metric ton. Last year, after poor harvests in West Africa, the price began to creep up, rising to $4,200 a ton by December, a threshold that hadnt been crossed since the 1970s.
[00:16:12] Here's another story, another problem. The headline from Bloomberg mad cow disease found at scottish farm in risk to meat exports mad cow disease was found at a farm in Scotland, prompting authorities to limit animal movement while they investigate and risking trade disruptions. An incident of classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, was confirmed in a shire in the west of the country, according to a statement from the scottish government. The last UK case was detected in English in September 2021, and there have been five over the past decade, not including the less severe atypical variety. The animal didn't enter the food chain, and the case was identified through routine surveillance, the government said. Still, disease outbreaks can raise the risk of import restrictions abroad. The government emphasized that british beef remains safe and can be traded as before. Here's another story, this one from the Financial Times. The headline regulators at least have oil price fixing in their sights. The FTC's ruling on Exxon pioneer deal shines a spotlight on the workings of OPEC and industry executives. This is from Gillian Tett. Half a century ago, a renowned energy analyst called Philip Verleger became embroiled in an antitrust battle as an advisor to american manufacturers that wanted to sue the mighty Opec oil cartel over price fixing. That failed. So did a second anti OPEC initiative that Verlager advised on in 2000. Now, however, at the age of 79, he is wondering if a third attack might finally and unexpectedly bear fruit. We are grateful for your attentive listening to the John Lothian News Daily update. Please spread the word about our podcast among your friends. We would greatly appreciate it if you could spare a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform on which you access this podcast. Your reviews play a crucial role in introducing our content to new listeners. Also, if you haven't subscribed to the Daily Johnlothea newsletter, email yet, you can enjoy a complimentary 90 day trial by visiting johnlothianews.com trial. Thank you for your valued support. Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated, with respect, equality, and justice. This has been. John Lothian Goodbye. This podcast has been produced by Andrew Lothian.
