Back to ‘normal’ but in the wake of Epiphany, not much of an opportunity for an “Epithany” either albeit with a few regulatory spats, ‘long-end LIBOR’ trials looking likely & the launch of the FINRA Spoofometer, while SGX celebrates vast freight volume growth, lots to enjoy on a brief scroll…
Meanwhile, an IT glitch of the most cheering kind, our website is playing up for credit card payments due to volume of folks seeking to get in before the deadline next week when our Premium service goes from $120 to $300. If you can’t access via the web site, email us and we can invoice in multiple ways! Lock in now to get the next three years at the lower rate behind the insightful paywall of market infrastructure thought & analysis.
Public Markets
Plus500 Welcomes Back New Customers To UK Entity
Ron Finberg – Finance Magnates
After halting the onboarding of new customers to their UK licensed entity, new customers are once again able to apply at Plus500.
China Halts Stock Trading After 7% Rout Triggers Circuit Breaker
Bloomberg
China Stock Regulator Said To Call Unscheduled Meeting On Market
Bloomberg
China’s securities regulator called an unscheduled meeting on the stock market after a tumble forced local exchanges to shut for the second day this week.
Xie Yu – SCMP
The push from Beijing to install a “registration-based” IPO system will add fuel to mainland China’s primary securities market in 2016 and put pressure on Hong Kong’s share of the IPO market.
The new guidance issued by HKEx on December 21 to ban cash companies from listing will discourage mainland companies from seeking back-door listings in Hong Kong.
Oslo Børs: Merkur Market Go-Live 13 January
MondoVisione
PLY: I am interested to see how Merkur Market goes. The new SME initiative from Oslo Bors is a welcome one. Good luck to Bente Landsnes and her team.
SEC: J.P. Morgan Misled Customers On Broker Compensation
SEC
SEC announced that J.P. Morgan’s brokerage business agreed to pay $4 million to settle charges that it falsely stated on its private banking website and in marketing materials that advisors are compensated “based on our clients’ performance; no one is paid on commission.”
PLY: This seems such a fundamental faux pas, a real low hanging fruit for the SEC’s desire to fine…
LME Details Fines For Trading Members (subscription)
FOW
US Liquidity Reform Plans Spark Debate (subscription)
Financial Times
Investment industry calls on SEC to water down proposed rule.
PLY: Blamestorming over bond liquidity & how to redeem rapidly when fundholders exit – ought to cheer the cockles of electronic fixed income platforms in some ways…
European Regulation: Key Points To Know About MiFid II / MiFIR
Finance Magnates
MiFID II has been approved by the European Parliament and will be a revision of the MiFID legislation that has been in place for approximately 8 years.
US Investigates Traders Over Debt-Market Rigging (subscription)
Financial Times
DoJ examining whether traders colluded to manipulate SSA prices.
PLY: Long-end LIBOR show trials loom.
Wall Street To Get Graded On How Much Spoofing It’s Facilitating
David Michaels – Bloomberg
U.S. regulators have grown so concerned that traders are using high-speed computers to manipulate markets that they’re planning a new tactic to clamp down on the practice — rating brokers on how much spoofing flows through their order books.
PLY: FINRA launches the “Spoofometer.”
ESMA Assesses Regulators’ Compliance With Market Maker Exemption Under Short-Selling Regulation
MondoVisione
Esma Raps Regulators Over Short-Selling Shortcomings (subscription)
James Rundle – Financial News
Europe’s top markets regulator has sharply criticised regulators in the UK, Germany and elsewhere over their application of regulations about short-selling, branding the situation “far from ideal”, but national supervisors claim the review’s findings are inaccurate.
MondoVisione
PLY: As good an example as they come of the sheer incapability of the current US administration to understand even the vaguest precepts of business.
Private Markets
Colombo SE Gets Nod To List Foreign Firms
Daily News
Gemini’s Winklevoss: ‘Institutionalization’ Of Bitcoin Trading Has Begun
CryptoCoinsNews
PLY: Probably but the market remains a tiny one, smaller than most every minor currency…
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
PLY: MCX off 1%, FTILL flat to small off, I was struck the other day by a tweeted screenshot of Jignesh Shah on TV claiming all NSEL bills would be paid in five months – that was August 5th 2013.
Products
SGX Freight Derivative Volumes Surge Over 500% In 2015
Marcus Hand – Seatrade-Maritime
SGX saw a 505% increase freight derivatives traded in 2015 to take over a 30% global market share by December.
Career Paths
Bloomberg reports that Cantor Fitzgerald hired Kevin Reynolds and Timothy Swift from Cowen & Co. to lead a team that would bring in and distribute new debt deals as part of an effort to expand its leveraged-finance business.
Reuters reports that Morgan Stanley promoted its investment banking chief, Colm Kelleher, to President, making him the heir apparent to current CEO James Gorman, and prompting Greg Fleming, the head of wealth management, to depart.
Japan’s CEOs: Underpaid & Underwhelming
Yuko Takeo & Nao Sano – Japan Times
If you want to know why many Japanese CEOs fall short as leaders, look no further than how they are paid.
That is the view of Atsushi Saito, who ended an eight-year stint as head of JPX in June. Japanese CEOs are underpaid, according to Saito. Not only that, most of their salary is fixed regardless of performance, and they will not make bold decisions for fear of missing out on cushy adviser roles after they retire, he says.
The solution: pay them more, link compensation to the share price and part ways when they step down.
Financial Calendar
Oslo Børs: Merkur Market Go-Live 13 Jan 13, 2016
Nasdaq Q4 2015 Results – Jan 28, 2016 (press release)
All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.
Share Notes
NASDAQ EVP Lee Shavel sold 10,231 shares on January 4th at $56.83 (bargain $581,427.73). He now owns 75,168 shares.
Crowdfunding
Chicago’s CFX Markets Opens To The Public For Crowdfunding Investment
Samantha Hurst
PLY: A secondary market for crowdfunding.