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Swaps market prepares for its big bang
February 17, 2014--The US swaps market is expected to begin a shift away from the predominance of telephone trading this week as it joins the 21st century in a move towards more tightly regulated electronic trading venues.
The changes are being ushered in by global regulators in the wake of the financial crisis and come into effect on Tuesday, as trading of over-the-counter derivatives moves on to so-called swap execution facilities, or Sefs.
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Source: FT.com
BMO Asset Management Inc. Launches Seven New ETFs
February 14, 2014--New equity and fixed income ETFs give investors opportunities for income and growth-Non-currency hedged and currency hedged products provide investors with more choice-Since its introduction in 2009, BMO AM's ETF business has expanded to 58 funds and more than $12 billion in AUM
"These new ETFs feature innovative approaches to fixed income investing, including new strategies and precise exposure. They also offer investors more international growth opportunities and include the first ETF in Canada that tracks a MSCI Quality Index," said Kevin Gopaul, Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President, BMO Asset Management Inc. "We're also adding to our unhedged suite of international ETFs to give investors more ways to access well-known market indices.
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Source: BMO Financial Group
NASDAQ OMX Files Proposed Rule Change to Permit the Listing and Trading of Exchange-Traded Managed Funds
February 14, 2014--Navigate Fund Solutions LLC (Navigate), a wholly owned subsidiary of Eaton Vance Corp. (NYSE: EV), today announced the filing by The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ OMX) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of a proposed rule change to permit the listing and trading of exchange-traded managed funds (ETMFs). The NASDAQ OMX filing complements the previously announced application for exemptive relief to permit the offering of ETMFs as filed by Eaton Vance Management on March 27, 2013 and most recently amended on January 23, 2014.
ETMFs are a proposed new type of open-end fund designed to bring the performance and tax advantages of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to active investment strategies, while maintaining the confidentiality of current portfolio trading information. As described in the proposed rule change, ETMFs would trade on The NASDAQ Stock Market at prices directly linked to the fund's next-determined daily net asset value (NAV), using a new trading protocol called "NAV-based trading." In NAV-based trading, prices would vary from NAV by a market-determined premium or discount, which may be zero. Because ETMFs would provide market makers with opportunities to earn reliable arbitrage profits without intraday hedging of their inventory positions, they can be expected to trade at consistently tight spreads to NAV in the absence of full holdings disclosure.
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Source: Eaton Vance Corp.
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