Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Welcome to the John Lothian News daily Update podcast for April 8, 2024. I am your host, John Lothian. This podcast is brought to you by John Lothian News, the home of markets Wiki and Marketswicky Education. Thank you for joining us. Here are the hits and takes comments from today's JLN the FIA has posted the full versions of the FIA hall of Fame videos of the honorees conducted by Walt Lucan ahead of the induction ceremony on which the shorter versions that were shown at the Boca Raton event were based. You can see the videos posted to the FIA websites Hall of Fame pages for most of the new hall of Fame members, but here are the links to the videos on YouTube. The videos that you can see are of Charles Carey, Tim doar, Deanna Dow, James Hines Junior and Rob Moore.
[00:01:06] John J. Lothian that's me, Leslie Sutphin, Pat White and Jack Wigglesworth.
[00:01:13] John Reed Stark, a consultant who served for 18 years in the SEC enforcement division and was the founder and chief of the SEC's Office of Internet Enforcement, has written a critical tweet about cryptocurrencies focusing on tether and bitcoin. The title of a screed is tether kills, bitcoin kills, crypto kills.
[00:01:40] Crypto related carnage continues to grow exponentially, and for what?
[00:01:46] Reed Stark, who also served as a special assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote that Vladimir Putin's war machine, for Iran's terrorism operations, for China's smuggling channels, and for many other global criminal and money laundering endeavors, bitcoin, tether, and other forms of cryptocurrency have become indispensable.
[00:02:16] This concerns mirror many of mine about the downside of crypto and what we are enabling. Enabling terrorists, arms dealers and the like, just leads to more war.
[00:02:28] With a different view on the subject is former CFTC chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo. Chairman Giancarlo wants you to join him in London on May 8 at the Crypto and Digital Asset Summit, where he will address ensuring individual civil liberties and economic freedom in the coming digital networks for money and finance. The title of his address is can CBdcs be made safe for democracy?
[00:03:00] Risc.net had a story we missed on April 1 about an AI that nearly took down a bank as it became Sentinel. The question I have given the date of the publication is whether this story is real or not. The story is titled Simone, the AI that nearly took down a bank with the sub headline, an algorithm designed to create new, structured products ran out of control last year with almost catastrophic consequences for a major bank. As our exclusive whistleblower account reveals, the AI created false employees, created new structured products to meet customer needs and hedged them well. The AI was tripped up when one of the phony employees was sent a case of champagne by a satisfied customer. Miami International holdings reported March 2024 trading results for its us exchange subsidiaries, including Myx, Myx Pearl, Myx Emerald as well as Minneapolis Grand Exchange.
[00:04:07] Total multi listed options volume for the Mayx exchange group was 137 million contracts, down 15.1% year over year. Mayx options had 55.1 million contracts or a 13.9% decrease year over year, while Myx Perl options had 48.3 million contracts, down 27% year over year. Mayax Emerald options reached 33.6 million contracts, up 7.6% year over year. In us equities. Myx Perl equities achieved a monthly volume of 4.5 billion shares, up 1.1% year over year, with a market share of 1.87%.
[00:05:01] Total year to date, volume for equities reached a record 13.2 billion shares, up 39.6% from the same period in 2023. In us futures, MGX reported a monthly volume of 171,307 contracts, a 29.4% decrease year over year and representing a 48.1% decrease from February 2020.
[00:05:34] FDIC chairman Martin J. Grunberg will deliver a comprehensive update at the Petersen Institute for International Economics on April 10, 2024, regarding the agencys preparations for the orderly resolution of a global, systemically important bank under the Dodd Frank Act. Grunberg will outline the FDIC's strategy to handle the failure of a GSIB, emphasizing the protection of insured depositors, preservation of value, promotion of financial stability and prevention of taxpayer bailouts. The event will feature remarks and a fireside chat with key figures from the FDIC, IMF and PIIE, followed by a roundtable discussion take place from 10:00 a.m. To 11:45 a.m.. EST at the Petersen Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC.
[00:06:43] Rohit Bhatt, managing director of Google Cloud for financial services and capital markets, digital assets and exchanges, is moderating a panel at Google Cloud next 24 on April 10 focused on the impact of AI in capital markets. He will be joined by a panel including Sunil Coutinho of CME Group, Katie Myers of Charles Schwab, and of Costas Bacas of Citadel securities. They will explore how AI is transforming quantitative research, trading, liquidity optimization and more across the data lifecycle. In May, FIA will host its renowned Fia forums in Stockholm and Hong Kong. These half day events will explore the most current regional and local issues affecting the utilization of listed and cleared derivatives. The Stockholm Forum is scheduled for May 23, followed by the Hong Kong Forum on May 30.
[00:07:52] Wilmerhale webinar series the revolution will be synthesized legal developments in the age of AI continues with its 7th installment focusing on AI and financial services, part two scheduled for April 16, 2024. The webinar will explore the evolving landscape in AI integration and financial institutions, addressing key legal and regulatory considerations for banks, non bank lenders, payment providers and consumer facing entities. Topics include the federal banking agencys supervision and regulation approach to AI, Biden administrations initiatives against algorithmic bias, regulatory guidance on AI principles, and proposed state legislation. Participants will have the opportunity to pose questions online during the session and CLE credit will be provided the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, Psi Psi Zeta chapter, honored my block, my hood, my city on April 6 with a community partner award. Jamal Cole, the founder of M Three as the organization is called, was very grateful to his parents, his team and his board for their support to help him become the person his parents raised him to be.
[00:09:22] Alex Reynolds is starting a new position as managing director and global head of sales at enterprise regulatory solutions at S and P Global. Alex was previously managing director and EMEA head of sales, capital markets and regulatory solutions at S and P Global. Tonight, my alma mater's men's basketball team, the Purdue Boilermakers, will play for the NCAA's men's national championship in Phoenix, Arizona against the University of Connecticut Go Boilers.
[00:09:58] Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN options were us e trade to acquire options house from payments, my Wild ride as a DJT day trader from the Wall Street Journal and Mayak Sapphire postpones launch from Traders magazine. Subscribe to the free JLN Options newsletter with a link in todays JlN. Here are more stories from the first read section of todays JlN. We have a video from our FIA Boca coverage European Energy Exchange CEO discusses industry trends and growth strategies at Fiat conference Peter Wright, CEO of the European Energy Exchange, was interviewed by John Lothian, news at the FIA International Futures Conference in Boca Raton, Florida, where he discussed significant shifts in the energy sector and the impact of innovative solutions like solar peak futures. You can watch this video on downloadhianews.com dot. Heres a story from the Wall Street Journal the headline solar eclipse 2024 what to know about the sun going dark in North America when will the total eclipse start? How long will it last? Everything you need to know about the celestial event, the first total solar eclipse to pass over the US since 2017, is happening Monday, when the moon will scoot between the earth and the sun, casting a shadow that will plunge part of North America into darkness in a swath of the continent known as the path of totality, where the sun will be totally covered. Temperatures will drop by ten degrees fahrenheit or so, winds will change direction, and some animals will go gaga as day turns to night.
[00:12:00] The first time I saw one was life changing and mind blowing, said C. Alex Young, a national aeronautics and Space Administration solar astrophysicist.
[00:12:12] I feel like there is this window that opens that allows me to see our star in a way that normally we can experience with our own eyes.
[00:12:24] My comment it's times like this that we find out how many modern neo pagans are among us.
[00:12:32] Heres a story from the Financial Times. The headline what Trump and crypto tells us about facts versus feelings. The more an asset price is disconnected from its fundamentals, the more potential it has to go to the moon.
[00:12:50] This year is starting to have something of a 2021 ish vibe to it. Bitcoin is booming. An old american man looks likely to hand leadership of the free world to another old american man. Elon Musk is saying things like dogecoin to the moon and so called meme stocks are back. One such stock has been attracting particular attention, and it just happens to be majority owned by one of the aforementioned old american men. Trump Media and technology group trading under the ticker DJT. Its share price surged in value on its market debut in late March after merging with another 2021 throwback, a special purpose blank check company known as a SPAC.
[00:13:46] People bought a digital asset named Doge that was supposed to be a joke. What were the fundamentals there?
[00:13:54] Here are the top three stories from Fridays JLN our top story Friday was Zimbabwe replaces battered dollar with new gold backed currency called Zig from Bloomberg. Second was the Financial Times bears and wolves stray into european politics, with the sub head plans to shoot large wild animals in Slovakia and Romania dismissed as electoral pandering. Third was Trans Mountain oil pipeline nears completion after tricky segment is finished from Bloomberg here are the top six stories from the lead section of todays JlN. The first story is from Bloomberg. The headline diamond likens AI's transformation potential to the steam engine. JPMorgans CEO says AI could augment virtually every job. Diamond discusses regulation proxy advisors in annual letter, JPMorgan Chase and company chief executive officer Jamie Dimon said artificial intelligence may be the biggest issue his bank is grappling with, likened its potential impact to that of the steam engine and said that the technology could augment virtually every job.
[00:15:20] The CEO devoted a chunk of his annual shareholder letter to the importance of AI for the Wall street giants business and for society at large. The bank has identified more than 400 use cases for the technology across marketing fraud risk, amassed thousands of AI experts and data scientists and begun exploring deploying generative AI, diamond said.
[00:15:49] Here's another story, this one from Bloomberg. The headline trade web to buy money market fund portal ICD for 785 million ICD purchase marks the biggest acquisition yet for Tradeweb. It is the third deal since CEO Billy Holt took reins in 2023.
[00:16:11] Tradeweb Markets Inc. Has struck an agreement to buy investment technology provider institutional cash distributors as it seeks growth beyond its core rate trading business. The electronic trading platform, long known for its fixed income offerings, will pay 785 million in its biggest acquisition yet, according to a statement which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg report. The deal will give Tradeweb access to one of the largest us institutional money market fund portals that works with about 500 corporate treasury organizations.
[00:16:53] Here's the press release from TradeWeb to acquire ICD, a leading independent, multi fund investment platform for corporate treasury professionals. Tradeweb Markets Inc. A leading global operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit equities and money markets, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire institutional cash distributors, an institutional investment technology provider for corporate treasury organizations trading short term investments for $785 million, subject to customary adjustments.
[00:17:35] Price is expected to be funded with cash on hand.
[00:17:39] Here's a story from Bloomberg. The headline a gates back startup is making fuel from water and carbon dioxide. Infinium counts Bill Gates as an investor and has fuel buyers that include Amazon and American Airlines. Now the company is trying to scale up the economy of Corpus Christi, Texas, is largely built on fossil fuel, a stone's throw away from making oil and gas fields. The port city is home to dozens of fossil fuel companies. It exports more crude oil every year than any other city in the US. But Corpus Christi's future fortunes, at least in the eyes of one startup, will be made off of fuel derived from carbon dioxide.
[00:18:30] If it can be scaled, that fuel could play a vital role in cleaning up the hardest to decarbonize portions of the transportation industry, from aviation to heavy duty trucking.
[00:18:45] Here's another story, this one from the Financial Times. The headline us banks warn Paris cost of dismissing traders will harm financial hub ambitions Wall street institutions pressed for french labor law reforms to bring down high redundancy payouts. Wall street banks have warned that their next wave of hiring in France may be stunted without restrictions. Restrictions on dismissal costs for highly paid traders, a flagship measure that has been left out of a reform package intended to bolster Paris as a financial center. Paris has emerged as the winner among european cities vying to become Europe's top financial center. Post Brexit and the Capps were meant to be part of an attractiveness bill discussed in parliament last week. However, they have not been included for now, as the french government and lawmakers seek legal workarounds for implementation under the countrys protective labor laws.
[00:19:51] Heres a story from Bloomberg. The headline SEC wins trial and novel shadow insider trading crackdown closely watched enforcement case expands trading restrictions lawyer argued SEC couldnt prove intent to defraud the US securities and Exchange Commission won a jury verdict in its groundbreaking insider trading case that seeks to bar employees from using non public information about their own company to place bets on rival stocks. The closely watched two week San Francisco civil trial was the regulators first enforcement action targeting so called shadow trading, a widespread phenomena that researchers say has gone largely unchecked. Congress has never explicitly defined insider trading, leaving courts to decide when the SEC oversteps its authority.
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