Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Welcome to the John Lothian News daily Update podcast for February 29, 2024. I am your host John Lothian. This podcast is brought to you by John Lothian News the home of markets wiki and markets wiki Education. Thank you for for joining us. Here are the hits and takes comments from today's JLN welcome to Leap Day of Leap year 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in his state of the nation speech today of a wider conflict over Ukraine and made his most explicit threat to use nuclear weapons since the full scale invasion, the Financial Times reported. He also said claims that Russia intended to attack Europe were quote unquote nonsense. CFTC chairman Rostam Benham will deliver a keynote address and participate in a fireside chat at FIA Boca on March twelveth at the annual International Futures Industry conference. The speech will be the first thing on Tuesday morning. JLN will be interviewing the chairman on Monday morning for our JLN Industry leader video series, which is sponsored by Wedbush. Chairman Benham will also testify before the House Committee on Agriculture on March 6, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.
[00:01:43] David Schwimmer, CEO of the London Stock Exchange group El SEg, explains in a video on LinkedIn the story behind the group's 2023 results. You can see the video with a link on johnlothiannews.com. Today, interactive brokers introduced IBKR desktop, the next generation desktop trading application for Windows and Mac. IB says the new IBKR desktop is, quote, engineered for today's traders who demand simplicity but value interactive brokers powerful trading tools, unquote. The London Data Summit 2024 will be held on March 26, 2024 at 22 Bishop's Gate, London E C two N four A, J and will attract a diverse audience comprising discretionary and systemic investors, private equity firms and hedge funds. The event serves as a platform for discussions and presentations centered around data driven insights and strategies relevant to the financial industry. Catering to the varied interests and approaches within the investment landscape, Ice Clear Credit ICC, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. Seeks a project lead to oversee initiatives for both Ice link and iceclear credit. Icelink is a versatile post trade messaging and workflow system serving the global credit derivatives market, while ICe Clearcredit stands as the world's largest clearinghouse for credit default swaps. Robert Corey, author of how to Intern successfully better watch out Bhavan Joseph is about to launch his own intern focused book, the interns blueprint from internship to career. Look for it soon. I love the smell of competition in the morning, former John Lothian, news chief marketing officer Ryan Lothian and nephew has published a commentary titled Invasive Species understanding the impact, repairing the damage in his role as science communications manager at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
[00:04:20] Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were the trillion dollar equation from Veritasium on YouTube, traders rush to hedge against euro losses as ECB day nears from Bloomberg traders amass big bet on falling grain prices after bumper harvest from the Financial Times subscribe to the free JLN Options newsletter with the link in today's JLN. Here are more stories from the first read section of today's JLN. We have a sponsored content contribution from our friends at Footsie. Russell Russell 2000 Index Quarterly Chartbook February 2024 the Russell 2000 Index provides live index tracking data with historical performance dating back to January 1984. Academic and practitioner research confirms that large cap stocks behave differently to small cap stocks, and performance is variable. There are subperiods during which the Russell 1000 outperforms the Russell 2000 and vice versa. Quarterly performance assessments provide valuable data points for understanding market sentiment and us economic activity. View the report with a link in today's newsletter.
[00:05:54] And then here's another episode of Futures Discovery. Futures Discovery episode seven futures discovery physical delivery versus cash settlement today we're delving into the fundamental aspect of futures trading, the settlement showdown, physical delivery versus cash settlement. In the dynamic world of futures trading, how contracts are settled is a game changer, influencing strategy and risks alike. Join me, Cortez Draper, as we explore the two primary methods that define this landscape, physical delivery and cash settlement. Of course, I'm not Cortez Draper, but you can watch the video and he's in the video.
[00:06:47] You can watch the video on johnlothiannews.com. And then here's a story from the Wall Street Journal. The headline the surprising effect friends have on our finances. We tend to measure our financial health based on our friends and what they post on social media. It's human nature to judge your financial health against your friends. You know they probably aren't giving you a full accounting. How we measure up against our friends and peers has an outsized effect on our financial perception, economists and researchers say. Especially as people spend more time scrolling social media, these comparisons can make our finances seem inadequate even when things are going fairly well. My comment it's important first to have friends.
[00:07:41] The next story is from Bloomberg. The headline AI warfare is already here. Us military operators started out skeptical about AI, but now they are the ones developing and using Project Maven to identify targets on the battlefield.
[00:08:00] On a summer evening in 2020, at Fort Liberty, a sprawling US army installation in North Carolina, soldiers from the 18th Airborne Corps poured over satellite images on the computers in their command post. They weren't the only ones looking. Moments earlier, an artificial intelligence program had scanned the pictures with instructions to identify and suggest targets. My comment this picks up a theme I've been writing about. Here's another story. This is a press release from Stepto. The headline Stepto's Ryan Hayden and Micah Green advised the ARRC swap dealer beneficiaries in receiving CFTC no action relief for sofer referencing swaps from pretrade mid market market requirements. On February 22, 2024, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC Market Participants Division MPD issued a no action letter NAL 24 two to swap dealer sd and market swap participant MSP registrants as former members of the alternative Reference rates Committee ARRC Regulatory Working Group from pre trade mid market mark PTMM requirements for overnight index swaps referencing the secured overnight financing rate or sofa. The CFTC has previously reached settlement with several sds involving violations of PTMM requirements. CFTC Rule 23.431 a three I. The no action letter is only the second issued by CFTC staff this year. My comment when I saw the headline, I was wondering what animals Ryan and Micah were advising the ARk to accept. Here are the top three stories from Wednesday's JLN our top Story Wednesday was the press release from trading technologies trading technologies extends energy trading capabilities with connectivity to the European Intraday physical power markets on Epex on PR Newswire. Second was the fascinating video from Vertasium on YouTube on the history of the math behind the Black Scholes Merton equation, the trillion dollar equation. Third was the unfulfilled potential of Europe stock markets from the Financial Times here are the top four stories from the lead section of today's JLN. The first is a story from the trade the headline ice and ip systems to launch cloud based audio solutions for traders named ICe Voice. The solution will leverage IPC's global voice platform to provide always on open voice connections. Intercontinental exchange Ice and trading communication solution provider IPC systems are set to launch IcE Voice, a cloud based audio solution for traders and professional investors. ICE voice will be offered with Ice Chat, bringing together the latter's network over 120 active users and IPC's Connectsus Unity private cloud platform to offer always on open communications between individuals or groups of traders across internal trading desks alongside any other registered ice chat users.
[00:12:05] Here's a story from the Financial Times the headline Hong Kong Stock Exchange's profits fall sharply as chief departs, Nicholas Aguzen's term ends on downbeat. Note with subdued trading and scant initial public offerings, Hong Kong exchanges and clearing reported a sharp fall in fourth quarter profits on the back of subdued trading and fewer new listings for the stock exchange. As outgoing chief Executive Nicholas Aguzen acknowledged turbulent geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions. Profits at Hong Kong Exchange during the three months to the end of December fell 13%, as average daily turnover for equities, a key driver of revenues, dropped 29% year on year to hk$80.4 billion. That's $10.3 billion, even after Hong Kong's government took special measures to boost market liquidity.
[00:13:16] And then here's another story, this one from Bloomberg. Is Hong Kong over? The answer lies beyond stock prices. The real question is if policies are moving in the right direction and taking enough ordinary people on board. Comparisons with Singapore offer some clues. The economist Stephen Roach's pessimistic conclusions about Hong Kong's future have triggered a heated debate. Though most of the angry reactions to the former Morgan Stanley Asia Limited chair's Financial Times article have been sparked by its provocative title, it pains me to say Hong Kong is over. Is it? Any evaluation of the chinese special territories prospects must go beyond the Heng Seng index, a wealth marker typically associated with prosperity in a city purpose built for commerce. Roach's article notes how the benchmark has been basically flat since the former british colony's 1997 handover to Beijing. In the past five years, the gauge has slumped by nearly 45%.
[00:14:28] And then finally, here's another story, this one from the trade LSEG sees double digit growth across post trade as exchange continues to reap benefits of acquisition. Bush the exchange's post trade division increased 17.4% year on year, while its data and analytics offering rose by 7.3% and capital markets by 6.1%. The London Stock Exchange, or LSEG, saw overall growth across its key businesses in 2023, with considerable improvement across data and analytics, capital markets and in particular post trade, the trade and analytics offering saw a 7.3% year on year increase, while capital markets saw a 6.1% year on year as compared to 2022.
[00:15:27] We're grateful for your attentive listening to the John Lothian news Daily update. Please spread the word about our podcasts 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 John Lothia newsletter, email yet, you can enjoy a complimentary 90 day trial by visiting johnlothiannews.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.
