Market Structure Insights
March 31, 2021
The stuff Archegos used expires today. Sound like Greek? Let me explain. A hedge fund blew up. Its counterparties are taking huge hits. There are ramifications. What happens? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. First, let’s understand “counterparty.” A counterparty accepts the risk of the opposite of...
March 24, 2021
Public companies and investors, is the Federal Reserve using cash to hurt you? What? Quast, don’t you mean they’re inflating stocks? To a point, yes. And then history kicks in. There’s no such thing as “multiple expansion,” the explanation offered for why stocks with no...
March 17, 2021
Couldn’t blame you if you missed it. For many, these past few weeks and the ones coming up are the busiest on the IR calendar. Board presentations, ASMs, virtual analyst conferences and investor days. You just finish year-end events and Q1 reporting is rushing...
March 10, 2021
The Securities and Exchange Commission is in danger of becoming the Dept of Silly Walks. Let me explain why I’m calling the SEC Monty Python. And it matters to you, public companies and investors. Speaking of disclosure: I’m on the NIRI National Ethics Council, and...
March 3, 2021
If your house was missing a wall, would you worry whether the front door was locked? Well, the stock market is missing a wall. And yes, the image here is not a missing wall but the walls you can ski at Steamboat. To our story,...
February 24, 2021
I knew it would come to this. Rep. Maxine Waters would be on CNBC talking about market structure. Last week during options expirations, Congress paraded supposed culprits in the Great Gamestop Mania before itself. And it wasn’t about financial misdeeds, somebody leading shareholders astray. No, it...