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Binary options are no backwater of the options market, argues derivatives educator Rick Thachuk. Rather, they are a growth product for retail investors that is about to take off – like retail FX trading a decade ago.
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Several leading Wall Street firms have written to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, urging it not to go ahead with plans to set position limits for speculative energy futures trading.
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Kevin Rudd, prime minister of Australia, has said he would delay his attempt to introduce a carbon dioxide cap-and-trade scheme until 2013, because of political opposition.
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India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has approved the introduction of the country’s first currency option, a rupee/ US dollar contract.
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The Green Exchange has applied to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for designated contract market status.
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BlueBay Asset Management, the London-based hedge fund, has deployed SuperDerivatives’ multi-asset portfolio management system, so that it can manage its derivatives business as well as other classes of assets.
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March was a dramatic month in listed derivatives markets, Futures and Options Intelligence's data report revealed this week.
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Cetip, the newly privatised Brazilian depository for OTC and private securities and derivatives, has signed a non-binding commercial agreement with Clearstream, Deutsche Börse’s clearing house.
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Demand for the new Chinese equity index future has continued to build after its strong launch on Friday April 16.
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Swedish financial technology firm Cinnober, publisher of the TRADExpress trading platform, announced in February that it had won its first customer for its real time clearing and risk management service through TRADExpress.
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Deutsche Bank has obtained an international Islamic banking licence from Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, which will allow it to offer Sharia-compliant derivatives in Asia in currencies other than ringgit.
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Fidessa will partner analytics firm Fincad to broaden its LatentZero trading platform’s fixed income, derivatives and cash management functionality. Under the partnership users will be able to value all fixed income and derivatives instruments in their portfolios through the LatentZero platform using Fincad’s analytics.
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Jacques Aigrain will be the next non-executive chairman of LCH.Clearnet, the clearing house, starting on April 6.
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OptionsCity has appointed Patrick Kenny to its board of advisers, the US technology vendor said on February 22. In October Kenny left rival software company Patsystems, where he had been managing director of the Americas for nine years.
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Fortis Bank Global Clearing is launching its own global high speed network, known as FCGN, to connect 24 of its hosting, proximity and colocation data centres in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
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Forts, the futures and options division of the Russian Trading System Stock Exchange, is planning to expand its suite of single stock options.
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Peter Wind, vice-chairman of Penson GHCO, the Chicago-based futures broker, left the company on February 26.
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GlobeOp is partnering Linedata Services to provide an order management system integrated with middle and back office services. The developers claim this will reduce the time to market for hedge funds executing long and short equity and futures trades.
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Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing is to build a new data centre, so it can expand and consolidate existing operations scattered across diffuse locations.
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The Reserve Bank of India is revisiting a draft policy on credit default swaps, issued in 2007 but never implemented.
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Islamic finance specialists gave a cautious welcome to the new ISDA/IIFM Tahawwut (Hedging) Master Agreement for Islamic derivatives, announced on March 1 by the two bodies that prepared it: the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the International Islamic Financial Market.
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Swiss bank Luzerner Kantonalbank is to upgrade to GFI’s Fenics Professional system for FX options pricing, portfolio management and automated straight-through processing in its back office risk management system. The move extends the bank’s partnership with GFI for another three years.
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Mercado Mexicano de Derivados, the Mexican derivatives exchange, is planning to expand its suite of volatility products, as well as launching derivatives on exchange-traded funds.
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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has approved the set-up of Trend Exchange, a market for trading futures on US film box office receipts.
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Intercontinental Exchange’s CDS clearing subsidiary, ICE Trust US, has appointed Christopher Edmonds as president, replacing Dirk Pruis. He will be responsible for managing the operational and regulatory aspects of ICE Trust.
Edmonds was previously chief executive of International Derivatives Clearing Group. He has also been chief development officer for Icap Energy and chief executive of Icap Futures.
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Dutch data centre provider Interxion has announced that Options IT’s product called the Options Pipe Platform has connected to its financial hub in northwest London.
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Trading and connectivity service provider Orc Software has announced the establishment of a CameronFix subsidiary called CameronTec. This follows the growing importance of Fix as an industry-wide financial exchange messaging system.
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Michael Overlander, Sucden Financial’s chief executive, and Jim Coupland, head of base metals at Standard Bank, have been re-elected to the boards of LME Holdings and the London Metal Exchange.
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RJ O’Brien, the US futures broker, has appointed base metals specialist Janet Mirasola as managing director of its metals team. She will be based in New York, leading the firm’s new strategic partnership with Sucden Financial, the London-based derivatives broker.
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Patsystems’ J-Trader and Pro-Mark trading platforms can now be used to trade the Singapore Commodity Exchange’s RSS3 and TSR20 rubber contracts. The platforms provide risk management tools and connectivity to global markets from a single screen.
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Singapore Exchange will introduce a future on robusta coffee, physically delivered in Vietnam, if its members do not object to a change in its clearing rules that would permit the launch.
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Thomas Siegl will become chief risk officer at European Commodity Clearing on May 1. He will leave BHF-Bank in Frankfurt, where he is responsible for the central risk management division. ECC clears trades on the European Energy Exchange.
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The costs of surveillance and compliance systems for brokers, exchanges and multilateral trading facilities are expected to reach Eu185m by 2012, according to a report by Tabb Group, the research firm.
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Trayport, the commodity trading software provider owned by GFI Group, will offer access to CME Group’s ClearPort clearing system for over the counter derivatives.
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Large companies moaning about having to post collateral against derivatives have forgotten the real value of hedging, argues Philip McBride Johnson.
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Interest in gold, silver and other precious metals has soared during the financial crisis – and with it their prices. But is this just a speculative craze that will vanish as quickly as it came? Owen Sanderson reports.
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The closure of the world's trading pits has isolated traders in front of flashing screens from Korea to Essex. Now, the social media phenomenon is offering to reconnect people - and futures and options specialists are loving it. Tom Osborn reports.
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It was a long time coming, but the recovery in listed interest rate derivatives now seems well under way. But as Elise Coroneos reports, the market will not just go back to the way it was; this year is going to be lively.
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BM&F’s 2008 merger with São Paulo’s Bovespa created the world’s third largest stock exchange, catapulting the group to a position of global influence. Tom Osborn meets the man driving the bourse's international expansion.
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The Nordic region has a vibrant listed derivative market with three financial exchanges. Nasdaq OMX's split with EDX and Oslo Børs has opened a new era of unbridled competition. Can all three can stay in the game? Colin Packham reports.
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Celebrating its 100th birthday last year, the Rofex is enjoying record volumes. It is merging with the Rosario Stock Exchange, and a deal with the Buenos Aires Futures Market is in the air. Tom Osborn meets the bourse's COO, Ismael Caram.
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Futures and Options World invites market participants to choose the cleverest and most useful innovations of the past year.
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Philip McBride Johnson argued in a recent comment article against ELX Futures’ desire to use exchange of futures for futures. Here, Neal Wolkoff, chief executive of ELX Futures, responds to that article.
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The battle between CME Group and ELX Futures over exchange of futures for futures should not be happening, argues Philip McBride Johnson. ELX is simply trying to free-ride on CME’s liquidity.