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CFTC.gov Financial Data for Futures Commission Merchants Update
February 13, 2012--Selected FCM financial data as of December 31, 2011 (from reports filed by February 10, 2012) is now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
ETF Research Center Reporting Monitor:4Q11 Reporting Monitor: A Sign of Bad Things to Come?
February 13, 2012--HIGHLIGHTS:
Q4 earnings appear less-bad versus a few weeks ago with over 70% of S&P500 firms having reported results . Nonetheless results were still less-than-stellar and hint of difficulties ahead.
Overall S&P profits grew about 8.0% led by Tech (XLK) and with a drag from Financials (XLF). However at $23.88 per share, this is the first sequential decline in index earnings since the profit recovery began in 2009.
Sales grew only about 5.3% and as a result most sectors struggled with margins. In fact, every sector except Tech and Industrials (XLI) saw margins decline sequentially. Energy (XLE), Materials (XLB) and Utilities (XLU) were especially weak
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Source: AltaVista Research
ETF Trader Goes Polar
February 13, 2012--It's early February. It's freezing. The winter seems as though it will never end. Cabin fever is unbearable. What to do? Let's become polar bears. Let's go for a swim in the ocean!
Some might say that was the thinking of Chris Hempstead, WallachBeth's director of ETF execution services. Along with four other hardy souls, he jumped into cold water off the Jersey Coast. But he had more on his mind than joining the polar bears. He intended to raise money for one of the most popular Wall Street charities.
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Source: Traders Magazine
At Volcker Rule Deadline, a Strong Pushback From Wall St.
February 13, 2012--Wall Street made its broadest assault yet against new regulation on Monday, taking aim at a rule that has come to define the battle over how to police banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
Regulators in charge of writing the Volcker Rule, which would ban banks from trading with their own money, were inundated with complaints and suggestions on Monday, the deadline to comment on a draft proposal. More than 200 letters were expected to be filed by the midnight deadline on the rule, which regulators outlined in October.
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Source: NY Times
Chairman's Letter, President's Budget and Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2013
Chairman Gary Gensler
February 13, 2012
Dear Senators Inouye and Cochran and Representatives Rogers and Dicks:
I am pleased to transmit the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Budget and Performance Estimate for FY 2013.
The CFTC’s budget request strikes a balance between important investments in technology and human capital, both of which are essential to carrying out the agency’s mandate under the Commodity Exchange Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act).
Congress has mandated that the CFTC oversee both the approximately $37 trillion U.S. futures markets, as well as the $300 trillion U.S. swaps market. It is essential that the derivatives markets – both the futures and swaps markets – work for the benefit of the American public; that they are transparent, open and competitive; and that they do not allow risk to be spread through the economy.
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Source: CFTC.gov
"Heart of the Matter: Resources"
Statement of CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton on the Administrations FY 2013 Budget
February 13, 2012--I support the President's budget request for Fiscal Year 2013. It goes to the heart of the matter by proposing funding to ensure we have the rudimentary resources to do our job.
When Congress passed the Dodd/Frank Act, it gave our Agency urgently needed authorities to police financial markets in the wake of the 2008 Wall Street collapse. That’s a good thing. But, policing can’t happen without putting more cops on the beat and getting technology up to full speed to oversee a marketplace whose speed and breadth are enormous.
We will move from regulating $5 trillion in trading to hundreds of trillions. To do that, in total, we will have finalized dozens of rules when that process is complete this year. And, all of that occurs at a time when the agency has anywhere from 750 to 1,000 enforcement investigations going on at any one time.
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Source: CFTC.gov
RBC targets ETF market after late start
February 11, 2012--Royal Bank of Canada expects to become a powerhouse in the burgeoning exchange-traded fund market despite its late entry as it moves to harness its reach as Canada's largest bank to target investors hungry for lowfee funds.
Cary Blake, vicepresident and head of ETF at the bank's RBC Global Asset Management unit, said a four-month-old suite of eight fixed-income ETFs
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Source: Ottawa Citizen
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
February 10, 2012--The current reports for the week of February 7, 2012 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
iShares files with the SEC
February 10, 2012--iShares has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the iShares Barclays GNMA Bond Fund.
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Source: iShares
ETF price war intensifies with new launches
February 10, 2012--A third example of increased price competition from iShares is provided by the launch of SLVP which is based on the MSCI global silver miners index.
SLVP carries a total expense ratio of 39bps and it undercuts SIL, the silver miners ETF run by Global X
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Source: FT.com
