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Stories

  • Pace: Electronic trading gathers pace 24 September 2011

    Electronic trading will continue to grow whatever regulatory changes are imposed.

  • Belchambers: A note on speculation in the commodity markets 22 September 2011

    Regulators should focus on market integrity and not prices in the commodity markets.

  • Michael: The fallout from Dodd-Frank 20 September 2011

    How upcoming regulation change is wreaking havoc in the hedge fund industry.

  • News analysis: rogue trades at UBS 20 September 2011

    How might risk systems at UBS have failed?

  • Maciel: Preparing to become a SEF aggregator 19 September 2011

    How banks can prepare for the introduction of SEFs

  • Bentley: what went wrong at UBS? 15 September 2011

    Here we go again as UBS announces $2bn loss following rogue trades.

  • Assia: How to build a people-based portfolio 14 September 2011

    Eight top tips for social trading.

  • Moulange: OTC overhaul will put the spotlight on connectivity 12 September 2011

    How new regulation will bring with it the need for greater connectivity.

  • Download the draft Mifid documents 08 September 2011

    Draft legislation and directives to be published by the European Parliament next month have been leaked. Read them here.

  • Lynch: Exposing the myths of data management 08 September 2011

    How to get your data in order to meet the demands of regulation and high speed trading.

  • News analysis: LSE's bid for LCH.Clearnet 07 September 2011

    What are the implications for European market structure of LSE's bid for LCH.Clearnet.

  • Lastennet: HFT moves to new trading frontiers 05 September 2011

    High frequency trading is beginning to expand its reach beyond its traditional market sectors.

  • Are East Asia's roaring commodity markets losing their voice? 02 September 2011

    Commodity trading in East Asia has been heralded as an almost unstoppable juggernaut. However, in 2011 commodity futures and options markets in the region look set to suffer their first year-on-year decline. Has the unthinkable happened and the market was a bubble that has now burst? Colin Packham discovers that Asia’s commodity success is far from over, but the incredible speed of growth may be checked by a slowdown in China.

  • Are speculators to blame for high commodity prices? 02 September 2011

    Global food prices in July hit the highest levels ever recorded, with staples such as wheat and sugar a third more expensive than a year ago. In the face of the global economic slowdown, the commodity price spiral shows no signs of abating, and as policy makers seek an explanation, the derivatives market is again in the spotlight. David Wigan looks in to whether accusations that speculation pushes up prices are justified.

  • Can financial ethics avert the next crash? 02 September 2011

    Talk about corporate social responsibility to someone in finance and they may respond with discussions of offsetting CO2 emissions or sponsoring projects in Africa. But for an industry that played the star role in a financial crisis that almost undid the fabric of modern society, social responsibility should mean a lot more says George Möller, chairman of Dutch regulator AFM.

  • Comment: Option risk management with back-booking 02 September 2011

    Option back-booking is a useful, if under-used, risk management technique which essentially avoids potentially costly and unnecessary delta hedging. Plus, it has the embedded potential to generate occasional windfall profits, writes Simon Gleadall.

  • Commodity derivatives: Navigating volatile markets 02 September 2011

    The monumental events of the first half of 2011 have impacted the way derivatives are traded. The Arab Spring, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the debt crisis in Europe, and the US debt ceiling debate and its subsequent historic credit downgrading all monumental events on their own, have converged to produce a different landscape in which large commodity derivative positions are, quite simply, out of favour, writes Elise Coroneos.

  • Country focus: A new dawn for Russian derivatives? 02 September 2011

    The recent merger of the Micex and RTS stock exchanges in Russia will consolidate trading on Russian derivatives markets into a single exchange. Some believe the deal creates a platform that will give the country’s derivatives markets greater credibility and more global clout. But not all market participants are convinced such benefits will ever be realised.

  • FOW meets...Jerome Kemp 02 September 2011

    Securing the services of one of the leading global bankers to build up its derivatives business was a significant coup for Citi. FOW caught up with Kemp about his motivations for joining Citi, his plans for the firm and his outlook for the industry.

  • Market focus: US equity options 02 September 2011

    Equity options in the United States are booming. In the first half of the year, over 2bn contracts were traded, with 376m contracts changing hands in June, at 21% increase on 2010. Daily equity options volume had an average of 16,039,382 contracts per day in July, a 31% increase on July 2010. As the US equity options markets rocket to their eighth consecutive record year, there are some clear lessons that can be learned from their success.

  • Mifid II will impact on margins, study warns 02 September 2011

    The revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, the EU legislation on financial markets known as Mifid II, will make legitimate hedging more expensive and impact on liquidity levels consultancy group GreySpark Partners has warned.

  • CLICK HERE FOR HIGHLIGHTS OF THE LATEST ISSUE OF FOW 01 September 2011

Poll

What concerns you most about the upcoming regulation changes?

Opportunity for regulatory arbitrage
13%
Impact on revenues
36%
Unnecessary complexity
10%
Workability of central clearing for OTC derivatives
11%
Workability of forcing complex derivatives onto exchanges
30%