The Market Structure Map
August 19, 2015
Investor-relations professionals are traveling salespeople. Now, we’re not paid commissions and I can see some of you recoiling at the imagery of rumpled suits and satchels stuffed with brushes, a voice saying, “Excuse me, ma’am, do you have a couple minutes? I’d like to tell...
August 12, 2015
Credit Suisse. Deutsche Bank. ITG. Pipeline. Barclays. UBS. BNP Paribas. Citadel. Goldman Sachs. Liquidnet. Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Citigroup. What commonality unites these firms? All have been fined for violating rules on so-called dark pools, private stock-trading venues. At least three are now defunct,...
August 5, 2015
We thought we were going to need a boat. Driving into Kansas City, a torrent fell in such proportion that the sky, the landscape, the topography of the roadway, disappeared into a pelting gloom that had our wipers humming on high amid the beating din...
July 29, 2015
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. So wrote Woody Allen for himself as Broadway Danny Rose in the eponymous 1984 film. I’m not sure what Allen meant then as I was a high-school sophomore wearing a mini-mullet. But there’s an application...
July 22, 2015
I recall knowing one particularly volatile fellow. I should have called him VIX. Speaking of the VIX, options on that popularly titled Fear Gauge expire today as a raft of S&P components report results. Many will see sharp moves in share-prices and attempt to put...
July 15, 2015
You need to defend yourselves as public companies. This clarion lesson comes from last week’s trading halt at the NYSE though we think the exchange handled the outage correctly. Humans want pictures of perfection like Saturday’s Balloon Rodeo in Steamboat Springs. But don’t expect serendipity...