| April 08, 2022 | | | | | Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
John Lothian News | |
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| | | | Lead Stories | | | Troubled Barclays VIX Volatility Note Sees $124 Million in Mystery Outflows
Sam Potter and Emily Graffeo - Bloomberg
Ever since Barclays Plc halted sales and issuance of a popular stock-volatility product last month, it's traded at a large premium to its underlying assets due to the sudden lack of supply.
But unexpectedly the exchange-traded note known as VXX has seen 20% of its shares redeemed since March 28 -- instead of being sold in the open market at a higher price.
/jlne.ws/3ukafoj
Big Short Keeps Nickel Market on Edge One Month After Squeeze
Jack Farchy, Alfred Cang and Mark Burton - Bloomberg
The world's main nickel market is broken and no one seems to know how to put it back together.
One month since the metals world was brought to its knees by an unprecedented squeeze, the "big short" that sparked the crisis is still mostly in place. Volumes on the London Metal Exchange have all but dried up, and prices are stuck at historically high levels that have become detached from the real world of much of the nickel industry.
/jlne.ws/37s1ZcQ
Goldman Sachs (GS) Traders Make $300 Million on Inflation in First Quarter
Bloomberg
Traders at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have made hundreds of millions of dollars from inflation trading so far this year, as the Wall Street giant benefits from the war-fueled surge in European consumer prices.
The bank generated about $300 million in the first quarter from dealing in bonds and derivatives tied to inflation, about double the tally of the same period a year ago, according to a person familiar with the matter. The lender's traders made much of their money from euro-based transactions, an already-surging market that has jumped to unprecedented levels since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the person said.
/jlne.ws/3KmYYZZ
ETFs attract strong inflows in March, but not 'all boats' were lifted. Here's where the money flowed--and where it didn't.
Christine Idzelis - MarketWatch
Exchange-traded funds raked in capital last month despite first-quarter losses for stocks and bonds amid jitters over the Russia-Ukraine war and the prospect of rising interest rates. U.S.-listed ETFs saw their third largest monthly inflows ever in March, a rising tide that did not lift "all boats" though like it did in 2021, according to State Street Global Advisors. Scroll down to see where the money flowedâand where it didn't.
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| | | | | | Exchanges | | | Equity Index market briefing April 2022
Eurex
Zubin Ramdarshan, Head of Equity & Index Product Design, Eurex
This quarter will be remembered for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately. The subsequent spike in volatility for financial and commodity markets has reverberated into the real economy. Governments find themselves walking a tightrope of fiscal and monetary policy responsibility. The unstable macroeconomic and political picture has led to an immediate increase in demand to hedge and efficiently reposition portfolios. This naturally drives the high trading activity in futures and options at Eurex. Realized and implied volatility levels have remained above long-term averages after the initial shock from the Ukraine invasion. The March-June roll provided further impetus to this particularly pronounced volume uplift. Overall, we saw monthly records in March for Sector derivatives, the Micro-futures segment, Mini-DAX , MSCI index derivatives and TRFs. New quarterly volume records were reached for our ESG and FTSE index derivative product suites.
/bit.ly/3LVdmJr
| | | | | | Strategy | | | Bears have a $100M reason to keep Bitcoin price under $45K until Friday's options expiry
Marcel Pechman - Cointelegraph
Some analysts argue that Bitcoin (BTC) rallied too fast and too soon and the weakness that we see on April 7 is a result of that. Currently, a new COVID-19 variant has caused the Chinese government to implement severe restrictions on Shanghai and other major cities and persistent regulatory concerns continue to weigh down the sentiment within the crypto sector.
/jlne.ws/35U7FvL
DataTrek's Colas Says Buy High-Quality Stocks or Trade the VIX
Joanna Ossinger - Bloomberg
There's no historical precedent for the current volatile investment landscape, so investors are better off picking one of two options: seek refuge in a high-quality stock portfolio or trade the VIX.
That's the assessment from DataTrek Research Co-founder Nicholas Colas, who cited the war in Ukraine and risks stemming from the Federal Reserve's plan to raise rates and slim down its balance sheet all in the same year.
/jlne.ws/3ul0cPF
| | | | | | Education | | | Options: The Scalpel Of The Financial World
Adam Eagleston - Forbes
In the hands of a skilled surgeon, a scalpel is a powerful tool that saves lives. In the hands of a child, it can be an effective way to lose a finger, or worse.
Options are the financial equivalent of a scalpel. Used appropriately, options can be a highly effective way for investors to manage risk. However, the record-breaking use of options by retail investors is setting the stage for a massive bloodletting in markets.
/jlne.ws/3umNiAJ
| | | | | | Miscellaneous | | | Ex-Barclays Traders Join Digital Art Craze With Bored Ape Tokens; Traders' collection features 70 Bored Ape Yacht Club images; Crypto and NFT boom resembles 1990s dot-com fever, they say
Laura Benitez and Abhinav Ramnarayan - Bloomberg
Two former Barclays Plc traders have swapped junk bonds for unique computerized art, amassing a collection of Bored Ape Yacht Club nonfungible tokens in a bet on the growing lure of digital collectibles. Ovie Faruq and Mike Anderson, former high-yield cash and derivatives traders, have amassed 70 images of apes in various states of boredom, and three Damien Hirst NFTs, among other digital images. They wouldn't reveal the value of their collection, or specific ID addresses, citing security concerns, but a Sotheby's auction in September of similar images gives a ballpark figure. A lot of 101 Bored Ape tokens was sold for $24.4 million -- and valuations have increased since.
/jlne.ws/3JgR433
Traditional institutional involvement remains paramount for crypto derivatives trading, finds report; Acuiti report found that greater intermediation from traditional sell-side firms and more participation from the buy-side would have the biggest positive impact on the market.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
More involvement from the traditional buy- and sell-side remains the most essential to the development of the crypto derivatives market outside of regulation, according to a Acuiti report. Derivatives accounted for 63% of crypto trading in February earlier this year, while crypto exchange Binance saw an average daily volume of $600 billion in Bitcoin futures, Acuiti found.
/jlne.ws/3JkHXyb
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