Market Structure Insights
March 2, 2016
Follow the money. Or the currency. Yesterday markets soared on queue with a Chinese currency devaluation in the form of lower bank reserve requirements (which increases money and reduces its value). For those who at the words “currency devaluation” feel like collapsing into catatonia, resist...
February 24, 2016
Yesterday on what we call Counterparty Tuesday, stocks plunged. Every month options, futures and swaps expire and these instruments represent trillions of notional-value dollars. Using an analogy, suppose you had to renew your homeowners insurance each month because the value of your house fluctuated continually. ...
February 17, 2016
Volumes are big but trades are small as markets pitch and buck. On this restless sea, is there a message in a bottle? That would seem poetic, were literature a help to your CFO in a stock market seeming the same hot mess as Justin...
February 10, 2016
“Other than that, everything’s okay.” My friend Gary, a smart guy with an MBA from the University of Chicago, uses that line to herald dire situations. It’s from the old UK sitcom starring John Cleese, Fawlty Towers. In one episode, Cleese the restaurateur receives a...
February 3, 2016
The X-Files are back on TV so the pursuit of paranormal activity can resume. Thank goodness, because the market appears to be paranormal (X-Files theme in background). Volatility signals behavioral-change, the meaning of which lies in patterns. Sounds like something Fox Mulder would utter but...
January 27, 2016
The 1,200 NYSE stocks supported by Barclays were the last redoubt of the old market-making guard. Yesterday, New York City-based Global Trading Systems (GTS) said it will buy the Designated Market Maker (DMM) unit from Barclays at the NYSE. GTS joins KCG Holdings, IMC Financial...