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CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
February 14, 2014--The current reports for the week of February 11, 2014 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
Market Structure, Incentives and Fragility
February 14, 2014--The factors that have contributed to the adoption of high-speed trading and affected market structure in recent years include competition, technology and regulation.
The unexpected ways in which these dynamic forces are coming together raise a number of important policy issues.
view the Chicago Fed Letter-Market structure, incentives, and fragility
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Majority of institutions to move towards smart-beta investments-State Street
February 14, 2014--More than 40% of investors across the US and Europe are already allocating to smart-beta investment strategies, according to new research by State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), as a further one-quarter contemplate allocation.
While just under one-fifth (17%) remain sceptical on the latest investment process, its up-and-coming nature is cemented among State Street's 300 institutional investors.
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Source: IP&E
Exclusive: Fidelity Shutters Private Wealth Management Unit
February 13, 2014--David Lamere's short-lived and mysterious stint as head of Fidelity Private Wealth Management has ended, and the division itself has been shut down as a stand-alone unit, Financial Planning has learned.
Lamere, a veteran and highly regarded wealth management executive who was CEO of BNY Mellon Wealth Management before joining Fidelity late in 2012, left the giant financial services company the same way he entered, with no official announcement or press release.
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Fianancial Planning
CBOE Short-Term Volatility IndexSM Futures With Weekly Expirations
February 13, 2014--On Thursday, February 13, 2014, the CBOE Futures Exchange, LLC (CFE(R)) launched trading of futures with weekly expirations on the new CBOE Short-Term Volatility IndexSM (ticker symbol: VXSTSM).
The VXST index is a nine-day measure of the expected volatility of the S&P 500(R) Index. The index uses nearby and second nearby options with at least 1 day left to expiration.
For more information including contract specifications, see www.cboe.com/VXST.
Source: CBOE
Statement by the CFTC and the European Commission on progress relating to the implementation of the 2013 Path Forward Statement
February 12, 2014--Today Acting Chairman Mark Wetjen and European Commissioner Michel Barnier announced that staff of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and staff of the European Commission (EC) have made significant progress towards harmonizing a regulatory framework for CFTC-regulated swap execution facilities (SEFs)
and EU-regulated multilateral trading facilities (MTFs), as contemplated under the Path Forward statement issued in July 2013.
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Source: CFTC.gov
IMF Working paper-The U.S. Manufacturing Recovery: Uptick or Renaissance?
February 12, 2014--Summary: The notable rebound of U.S. manufacturing activity following the Great Recession has raised the question of whether the sector might be experiencing a renaissance. Using panel regressions, we find that a depreciating real exchange rate, an increasing spread in natural gas prices between the United States and other G-7 countries, and in particular decreasing unit labor costs have had a positive impact on U.S. manufacturing production.
While we find it unlikely for manufacturing to become a main engine of growth in the United States, we find that U.S. manufacturing exports could provide nonnegligible growth opportunities going forward.
view the IMF Working paper-The U.S. Manufacturing Recovery: Uptick or Renaissance?
Source: IMF
Fee Rate Advisory #3 for Fiscal Year 2014
February 12, 2014--The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that starting on March 18, 2014, the fee rates applicable to most securities transactions will be set at $22.10 per million dollars. The assessment on security futures transactions will remain unchanged at $0.0042 for each round turn transaction.
The Commission determined these new rates in accordance with Section 31 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These adjustments do not directly affect the amount of funding available to the SEC.
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Source: SEC.gov
Leveraged ETFs not just for day traders anymore
February 12, 2014--Leveraged exchange-traded funds, originally viewed as tools for fast-moving day traders, are showing up more frequently as buy-and-hold investments in Mom and Pop portfolios, thanks to the advisers who are putting them there.
These funds, which exist across several asset classes, magnify the moves of their underlying indexes by delivering twice or three times their return. Some had a particularly good showing in 2013, when the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose almost 30 percent. The Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bull 3x Shares ETF, for example, gained 118.9 percent in 2013, more than triple the S&P 500's gains.
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Source: Reuters
BNP Paribas CIB Expands Its US ETF Trading Capabilities With Key Hire
February 12, 2014--BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking is pleased to announce that Andy Ruckh has joined Global Equities and Commodity Derivatives business in New York as Head of US ETF Trading.
The move reflects an expansion of the bank's US ETF Trading capabilities designed to provide additional service and expertise to a range of clients. Ruckh will report to Luke Edwards, Head of Cash Equities.
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Source: BNP Paribas