Oct 14, 2023 9 min read Exchange Invest Weekly Podcast

215 Exchange Invest Weekly Podcast October 14th, 2023

This week in the parish of bourses and market structure: London Has Myopia, In Chicago - The Love Has Gone , And In Sydney: The RBA Are They Twisting The ASX Knife?

Transcript:

This week in the parish of bourses and market structure:

London Has Myopia

In Chicago - The Love Has Gone

And In Sydney: The RBA Are They Twisting The ASX Knife?

Welcome to the Bourse Business Weekly Digest

It's the Exchange Invest Weekly Podcast Episode 215

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, this is a very brief reduction of highlights amongst the key headlines from the week in market structure. All the analysis of the many events and happenings from the past 7 days can be found in Exchange Invest Daily subscriber newsletter, the unique guide to the bourse business sent daily to your inbox.

More details at ExchangeInvest.com

This week in Bitcarnage has seen a lot of to and fro as the SBF case got underway. After a day and more picking jurors, things quickly got into stride and the accusations have been flowing fast and thick at SBF, who is defense seeks to present as some kind of uber-nerd semi-larrakin kind of figure who just made a few normal kind of startup errors.

As recounted in Bitcarnage:

In a version of the Chewbacca defense, SBF wants to talk about his investment in Anthropic AI. In essence, SBF wants to say “look this as accumulated value and can pay creditors which ergo proves I didn't steal anything.”

It's one of those nifty but stupid syllogisms which presumably Ivy League ‘frat prats’ still think are clever. In any case, the DOJ is against SBF even making the slightest attempt to Chewbacca the jury.

One element which strikes me as not merely curious but to my non-legal mind - amounts to fraud is noted by Mark Levine via The Verge whose article was The FTX Jury Suffers Through A Code Review. It seems the “backstop fund” - a form of consumer insurance guarantee fund was calculated by a random number generator: “it took the daily trading volume on FTX, multiplied it by a random number, divided it by a billion, and added to the existing number displayed on the site. It had nothing to do with the actual amount of money in the insurance fund.”

Who would like to step forward and argue that this is a startup kind of thing that just happens?

Oh and then there are the planes, clearly again, one of those ‘boys will be boys’ kind of startup errors according to the defense, as the US Department of Justice moves to have SBF’s interests forfeit their various private jets - ‘normal everyday startup stuff’ as his defence will doubtless be swift to add.

…This all logically leads to one of the many stings and the tails from last week. The body of evidence above contrasts starkly with last week's frankly laughable concept that the FTX trial could be good for crypto. There's simply too much dirty washing in public right now to help crypto bounce meaningfully, other than in the usual squeezes amongst the cult members. Trying to promote crypto to a financially strapped wider public isn't going to work. Right now hoi polloi are focused on surviving the inflation fiasco unleashed by the Carney cabal of Z grade central bankers. Anyway, this may be the big publicity moment that sinks crypto V1.0. Or at least it's another hole in the becalmed boat which will soon be washed away to Mum’s basement for a new round of innovation.

And indeed, further to that we have, I believe, the crypto V1.0 extinction level event, all that money laundered to Hamas that went through crypto millions of dollars funding terrorist murder.

If you enjoy this excerpt, you may be interested to read Bitcarnage every day in Exchange Invest. Alternatively, if you want to follow Bitcarnage as a standalone, the daily update on happenings in the world of crypto and digital assets, you can find us on Substack.

In London, the Government's London Stock Exchange Boosterism Is Anti-Competitive, Claims Rival Boss - City AM.

I must have often noted the London blob masquerading on occasion as a government - with a permanent pillock because Finance Minister has a myopia that LSE is the London financial centre whereas, as Alasdair Haynes, the boss of Aquis notes - with some entirely justified exasperation - LSE isn't even the London Stock Market!

Fascinating article by Reuters this week: Analysis: When, Not If, Europe Copies Wall Street Share Trading Reform.

Indeed, the EU sacrificed a decade of growth at the altar of their doctrinaire protectionism and manifesto of fear mandated by the precautionary principle, which governs the innovative and growth potential of the wannabe European superstate. The EU is now that grumpy retired uncle who deems himself relevant but it's treated with a modicum of contempt by all the working folk in the room, themselves appreciating influence is more than pretence leveraged by history. Thus, the EU has no choice - their push to influence regulation globally as sputtering to a halt in the parish. The MIFID II “great waste of time” as we will never tire if terming it, was a deft bullet in the foot which ricocheted into the brain of an EC/EU which in believing it could manage decline, betrayed the ambitions of its people. Very sad. Thus, Brussels has reduced itself to becoming a meek follower of the USA - for good or bad - in financial regulation because, as the Willie Sutton rule goes “that's where the money is.”

Meanwhile, there was a twist this week in the tale of ASX’s self-generated trust/management fiasco. Traditionally, it seems the RBA central bank issues its report card after the ASX AGM. This time around the AGM of ASX will take place on October 19^th some 10 days after an embarrassing RBA report card has been published. Was it a pure bureaucratic coincidence? Or is it a message that an abject disgrace of ‘mediocrity as normal’ from ASX is being allowed to remain.

Meanwhile, over in Chicago, the love is gone in the Windy City and El Tel is firing warning shots left, right and center. Quite right too! Property leases are being ended in 2025 across the board leaving CME Group in a pole position to vault towards an anti crime pro business metropolis / state or to encourage some form of government outbreak amongst the doctrinaire spendthrift lunatics who masquerade as city and state government in Chicago / Illinois.

New markets this week, one very exciting development, an energy exchange is to launch in Brazil.

Fascinating joint venture between the L4 Venture Builder fund backed by bourse operator B3 and European Energy Exchange’s Nodal Exchange. The new venture will be titled N5X.

Deal news this week, there's talk of forced merger of commodity exchanges.

“Linking and merging Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) with the East African Commodity Exchange (EAX), African countries are advised to introduce a single regional agricultural commodity exchange.”

I must admit I'm not entirely convinced that we improve markets this way - surely the local price is key and a vast regional price is just a freight arb which will leave some very frustrated? Before we even start that, is of course, about talking about quality and related product facets?

Meanwhile, the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) is acquiring a 10% stake in Enviro Enablers India.

“The association will fulfill IEX’s commitment towards sustainability and decarbonisation in line with India's net zero commitments, the Indian Energy Exchange said in a BSE filing.”

If you're trying to understand the future of markets ladies and gentlemen, don't forget to pick up a copy of my most recent book “Victory or Death?” Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and the FinTech World. It's published by DV Books and distributed by Ingram worldwide.

Meanwhile, while you're waiting for your copy of “Victory or Death?” to arrive, check out our live stream Tuesday at 6pm London time, 1 o'clock New York time. It's the IPO Vid live show.

Catch the back episodes on LinkedIn and Youtube via IPO-Vid.

Our most recent show was a gripping edition with Rod Blondin, a leading South African Commodities and Commodity Exchange expert. He was talking to us all about the wonderful topic “Commodities Markets- On the Road With Rod Blondin”

Next show coming up on Tuesday is going to be John Ensley for IPO-Vid #121. John Ensley is going to be discussing “How To Bank On Yourself”.

Meanwhile, our “Book Of The Week” this week was written by our IPO-Vid guest #062. Patrick Young. No, not me, but Patrick M. Young.

As he notes: “It is high time we nullified this poverty-incarceration, two-feeder system. How? By dealing with the root, which is poverty. So how do you break the cycle of poverty? You may want to get out of jail or prison but are you ready to get out of poverty? How?”

The answers are found in his tone “A Way Up: Economic Development Post Incarceration Workbook”. It's a way to learn how to experience your own economic development post-incarceration.

Our next “Book Of The Week” will be unveiled on Saturday in the EI Weekend Edition which is free incidentally, ladies and gentlemen if you want to tune in to some more interesting macro reading on a Saturday morning, just go to ExchangeInvest.com to sign up for free. But don't forget, if you want all the news on the bourse business and daily in your inbox then consider subscribing to Exchange Invest via ExchangeInvest.com website. It's only $349 per annum to join the exchange of information. And now we're giving you fully integrated history you can go through and access all of the archives of Exchange Invest dating back more than 10 years.

Product news this week, the European Union bond futures delivered launch looks likely in 2024 according to an EU official.

“Deutsche Boerse's derivatives exchange Eurex has been working to launch futures for EU bonds since 2021.”

That could be ideally timed for the next Eurocrisis, which would be a boon to the EUREX volume bottom line but then again, it might be the death knell of the entire Euro project…

Tokyo's Stock Exchange, they're going to be removing over 400 firms from the Topix index as part of their major restructuring in 2025.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India is launching options contracts on WTI crude oil and natural gas futures based out of the US.

Hmm, I wonder is NSE going to therefore be the last people to go into the DSW complex of CME/NYMEX oils? As I've noticed previously, the great shift is becoming real despite the somewhat curious witterings of CME management on the topic.

Technology news this week, the Hong Kong Exchanges Group has launched Synapse, a settlement acceleration platform for Stock Connect.

Warsaw Stock Exchange has selected Equinix as the data center for their new trading system WATS.

Career path this week, the NGX (Nigerian Exchange Group) announced some key board changes. Most notably, Ahonsi Unuigbe has become the new chairman of the board of NGX succeeding Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), who has retired.

Meanwhile, NGX RegCo welcomes Salamatu Suleiman as its new Board Chairman, effective from the end of September succeeding the retiring Catherine Echeozo.

Talking about NSEs or at least NGX from one NGX to an NSE (Nairobi Securities Exchange) they are now looking for a new CEO as Geoffrey Odundo prepares his exit in March 2024.

And that leaves us in BigWorld ladies and gentlemen, the sanctions applied to Russia, as a result of their invasion of Ukraine have led to some fascinating ‘quirks’ in trade flows….

Take for example the landlocked Eurasian Economic Union member Kyrgyzstan which has a free trade agreement with Russia. German exports increased by 2,000% during the first half of 2023. Even presuming the relatively high Kyrgyz GDP growth of over 7% is being repeated in 2023, that leaves an import discrepancy which is glaringly apparent in official records.

Indeed, Germany has been reporting more exports to Kyrgyzstan than the nation has been recording in imports from Germany.

…And on that mysterious and magnificent note, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Patrick L. Young, creator of marketplaces the world over and publisher of Exchange Invest, the exchange of information.

I wish you all a great week in life and markets.

LINKS:

Government's London Stock Exchange Boosterism Is Anti-Competitive, Claims Rival Boss
City AM

Analysis: When, Not If, Europe Copies Wall Street Share Trading Reform
Reuters

RBA Report Card Cuts ASX Grades On CHESS Governance
AFR

CME Head Says He And New Chicago Mayor 'Don't Agree On Anything'
Yahoo Finance

Energy Exchange To Launch In Brazil, Aims To Boost Power Trading
Reuters

Africa Countries Told To Merge Commodity Exchanges
New Business Ethiopia

Energy Exchange IEX To Acquire 10% Stake In Enviro Enablers India
Business Standard

EU Bond Futures Launch Looks Likely In 2024, EU Official Says
Reuters

Tokyo Bourse To Remove Over 400 Firms From Topix Index
Yahoo Finance

NSE To Launch Options Contracts On WTI Crude Oil, Natural Gas Futures
Zee Business