Wednesday, June 13, 2012


G’day All,

Well, been a while between blog posts. Ahhh, priorities. Anyway, time to empty some stuff from the mailbox.

Sadly, the Aussie ocean swimming season is now over.
The penultimate swim at Warriewood saw some spectacular surf....but the swim was cancelled.

Warriewood swim cancelled
And let's make no bones about it: that swim could not go ahead in those conditions. The Warriewood break is difficult at the best of times, but the dump onto the bank on Warriewood beach on Sundee was the most deadly we've seen in years. The swell just thumped onto that bank, with such force that, even watching it from the safety of the cafe under the surf club, it made one's skin prickle; we could feel the crash; it shook our chairs. Each and every dumper in such shallow water fired a volley out behind, ejaculating sand and water along 100 metres of wave into the face of the next dumper rolling in. It was frightening to watch.

Still, a week later, under heavy skies with a light rain falling....A swim...

Report here:
Results here:

I’ve managed to catch the occasional game of Rugby.
...and fortunately missed our loss to Scotland.
I mean please. That hurts!

This week I saw a great gadget which I love:

...But we felt that we could try to do something about the situation where computers had become so expensive and arcane that programming experimentation on them had to be forbidden by parents...
Circuit diagram at:
Which I read about here.
I’ve registered my interest to get one here (flag in top right hand corner lets you choose jurisdiction):

My son has downloaded so much rubbish onto our home PC it did what all windows PCs do....crash.
So I thought we could use various components and build him his own tower PC. Clever?
Ummm, I think he was slightly more excited at the thought of collecting the dog’s poo.
Why build it when you can just get a new one out of the box?
...I’m sure he’ll be enticed by some raspberry pi?

This was one of the better hoax’s....
On 6th June 2012 a massive swell hit Sydney, Australia. The giant waves broke all the way into the harbour, making a perfect 2km wave at Bennelong Point

...and here it unfolds....Hoax video of surfers at Opera House


So, with a while between blog posts, I’ve missed a lot of news, ho..hum...but what did I see?

Chi-East closed. Various reasons I’m sure. Complexity of post trade model being one of them.
ASX’s relatively new CEO spoke eloquently and presented well at the annual stockbrokers conference. Ummm. The less I say about the self serving content the better. (NB. MY PERSONAL VIEW).
Dark pools continue to be a focus in Asia and Aust.
Medcraft of ASIC also spoke well and I was pleasantly surprised by how across the subject matter he was. He answered 3 questions on various industry sectors in context and with relevance.
Medcraft is also chairing the IOSCO board. So Aust punching above our weight in global trading trends...and I think he’ll want to leave his mark both locally and internationally. Dark pool consultation is far from over in Aust.
ASX can match 19 equity options.
Eurex has sold itself and is partnering with the industry to clear IRS.
Oh, Link is a share market registry service ASX sold for 150 myn and is now looking to buy back for 6 times that amount.
APX is a new Aussie market set to target Asian capital. Both here and abroad. There is no CCP so it will be bilaterally cleared running on the Trayport platform.

I like 360. The rapper more than the research.

My brother, calls himself a geologist, but we know that’s an environmental rapist. Well, he is looking at going into the wilds and exploring. I thought I’d give him an analogy about generals and the front lines. Then it dawned on me I don’t know anything about generals and military campaigns. (rest assured I do know how to find the bar in my local Returned Serviceman’s League club). Anyway, I thought of MacArthur so I googled him and came across the downfall of Admiral Kimmel.
Chapter 4...p48-62 makes for an interesting read.

Happy Jubilee! Long weekend here.
Cuppa tea, eh what!

So tomorrow I plan to watch a little Rugby. WooHoo.
I want Ireland to win...but they only beat Australia.
Sth Africa will win.
Ummm, sheepishly, after losing to Scotland...sure, we’ll beat the 6 nations Chumps / Leaks.

Saturday 9th June:
New Zealand vs Ireland
Australia vs Wales
South Africa vs England

Have a great week-end all.

S




PLATFORMS

Chi-East to Close Operations After Disappointing Volumes


2012 ANNUAL STOCKBROKERS CONFERENCE
ADDRESS BY ASX MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CEO – ELMER FUNKE KUPPER

Dark pools shine as ASX trade size falls
The ASX average trade size for the first quarter is around $7000

Link is a share registry service.

ASX launches Equity OTC Clear service
The Australian Stock Exchange has launched Equity OTC Clear, a new service for ASX participants to anonymously report transactions in over-the-counter equity options
The ASX Equity OTC Clear service is initially available over the 19 most liquid equity options, which are AMP, ANZ, AWC, BHP, BSL, CBA, FMG, MQG, NAB, NCM, OZL, QBE, RIO, STO, TLS, WBC, WES, WOW and WPL, and also over the index XJO option contract.

MMADX appoints new executive director
Money Market and Debt eXchange has named former NAB heavyweight, Michael Go, as a new executive director, where he will focus on finalising the firm's capital raising.

New Australia Stock Exchange Targets Asian Firms, Investors

The Asia Pacific Exchange is scheduled to go live next month, subject to final Australian regulator approval.

New switching device cuts latency
Trading times are on the brink of becoming even quicker with today's launch of the world's fastest switching device with a latency of 130 nanoseconds

TURMOIL AT PLUS MARKETS CONTINUES AS DISSIDENT SHAREHOLDERS LOOK TO OUST EXECUTIVES Dissident shareholders of Plus Markets Group have tabled a resolution to oust the chairman and chief executive over their proposals to sell the small cap exchange business to Icap for £1.

Deutsche Börse buys Eurex Zurich for €295 million
Deutsche Börse Group has fully acquired Eurex Zürich AG. Representatives of SIX Swiss Exchange/SIX Group AG and Deutsche Börse AG jointly finalized the transaction in Zurich


CLEARING

EuroCCP news Roundup
Interoperability: EMIR embeds the concept of CCP interoperability for cash equity markets, acknowledging the significant benefits of generating scale economies to bring down costs of EU clearing as well as eliminating CCPs as a potential single point of failure for a national market. NASDAQ OMX's recent last minute decision to pause its interoperability project in the Nordic region has raised concerns amongst Nordic policymakers about the potential future competitiveness of their market.

Eurex Clearing partners with seven for new clearing service
Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley will all support the launch of EurexOTC Clear for IRS

Sweden’s NASDAQ collateral management shakeup
Sweden-based exchange and clearing company NASDAQ OMX Stockholm (OMX STO) set up three clearing funds to mutualise risk, and revised its collateral management structure so as not to rely too heavily on custodians that are also clearing members


POLICY

Maintaining market integrity in a changing environment

Keynote speech by Greg Medcraft, Chairman, Australian Securities and Investments Commission to the Stockbrokers Association of Australia 2012 Annual Conference, 1 June 2012.
Today, I would like to cover some of these changes, such as market structure, high-frequency trading (HFT) and dark pools, and enhanced market supervision.'
Specifically on dark pools, ASIC will:
- make a new rule requiring price improvement for dark trades below block size; 
- replace the $1 million threshold for block trades with a tiered model;
- not implement a minimum size threshold for dark orders, but discuss with industry potential triggers for future application of a threshold; and
- consult on the draft market integrity rules very shortly, with the aim of making final rules in September/October 2012. 
ASIC will also create a taskforce to review dark pools and other forms of off-market trading. The taskforce will look at:
- compliance with existing market integrity rules and Corporations Act requirements, including compliance with trading rules and conflict handling, 
- supervision of trading in dark pools; and 
- whether there should be additional requirements to ensure there is appropriate transparency and supervision.

12-97MR ASIC chief elected chair of IOSCO board
ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft was today elected chairman of the board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), following a vote of board members at IOSCO’s annual conference in Beijing.
Includes IOSCO board members.

Compensation report finds against last resort scheme
The St. John report on compensation arrangements for consumers of financial services recommends strengthening existing compensation arrangements before implementing a 'last resort' scheme

Full report available here (122 pages):


PARTICIPANTS

NAB winds up private equity arm
National Australia Bank is closing its Integrated Capital Solutions private equity investment division.

MLC appoints new head of ThreeSixty Research
ThreeSixty Research is an 18-member team that provides investment, insurance and portfolio construction research support to advice businesses aligned to the NAB Group.

Funny, I thought 360 was a profane Aussie rapper....with actually a very good chart release in Child.
I recommend this:


STUFF

The Aussie Economy: Why Rates Will Fall, And Need To Fall More
For some time the AMP's chief economist, Dr Shane Oliver has been arguing that Australian interest rates need to be lower. The Reserve Bank at its last meeting seemed to be finally coming around to this view, but preferred to wait for the release of March quarter inflation

‘I’ll Make 250K This Year, While You’re Unemployed LOL’: Monster.com Recruiting Goes Horribly Wrong


UK pension reforms tackle longevity crisis
Landmark reforms to the UK's pension system have been slated during the Queen's opening address to parliament and could be legislated by 2013.

Jonathan Pain makes big calls because he made them early
One of Pain’s pet theories is that the world is now divided between those that are submerging in debt and those that are emerging because of rapid growth, such as China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia.
“It’s the new reality as opposed to the new normal, which is an incredibly US-centric view,”

OECD Economic Outlook
22/05/2012 - The global economy is gradually gaining momentum, but the recovery is fragile, extremely uneven across different regions and could be derailed by the crisis in the euro area, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook (including country summaries...just click on your flag).
(Australia can be expected to keep reaping benefits from the mining boom. Despite sharp sectoral disparities, economic growth should be around potential in 2012 and 2013.)

Future seen for cheques

The average cost of processing a cheques is estimated at $7.69 each, compared to less than $1.21 for each electronic payment, according to figures by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

THE SECOND PEARL HABOR: ATTACK ON THE PHILIPPINES
General MacArthur’s first notice that war had broken out occurred around 3:00 a.m. on the morning of 8 December when his chief of staff phoned him with the news....
Whatever caused General MacArthur to wait for over seven hours before making a decision to use his bombers resulted in the unnecessary destruction of his air force. Since he was the overall commander of forces in the Philippines, this needless waste of precious air assets falls on his shoulders. Moreover, his decision to declare Manila an open city without coordination with the Navy resulted in even more loss of critical
weapons and ammunition. As a commander, he clearly failed...
Chapter 4...p48-62 makes for an interesting read.

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