Wednesday, April 25, 2012


G’day All,

Well a while since a blog post. Sorry about that. Swamped at work...pretty much like getting swamped by a wave.
Then Easter and a trip to Thailand...where the tsunami scare hit.
The scare was an event in itself...talk of herd mentality quickly deteriorating into mass panic. Amazing.
Footware littered the streets, shops just abandoned, people trying to run over the top of my kids. A lot of respect for ‘women and children first’ is forgotten in a panic.

BATS glitch, now old news, but nevertheless noteworthy for the record. I think it’s a bit of a mountain out of a molehill.
ASX scales back data centre ambitions.
Tokyo AIM misses the LSE target.
I’m actually a little surprised the LSE bid for LCH has come so far. Then again, I am on the other side of the world. Even with the swap clear boom, the valuation is still less than the 2003 LCH / Clearnet merger. (I think 1.2byn – need to search blog).
NYSE Euronext will do it’s bit to reduce the value of the LCH.CN regulated markets business.
Back in Aus the Treasury have published their long awaited paper on Central Market Infrastructure suggestions to meet the G20 OTC recommendations.

Well, that gets the blog started again and a few draft emails out of the way....but the inbox is still overflowing.
Summer is passing here. My open air training pool closes at the end of next week, so time to really savour these last few ocean swims of the season.
National Geo is doing a special show on the Sydney Shark Invasion....hope I get to watch it next week!
(Hmmm.. An elite team of marine biologists set out to investigate why the waterways surrounding Sydney have become hunting grounds for some of the most dangerous shark species known to man.)

Whatever your leisure, make it a pleasure!
Have a great w/end.

S



PLATFORMS

Circuit breakers contained potential fallout from BATS glitch
BATS suffered a trading glitch late last week that sparked concerns about electronic trading but also highlighted how circuit breakers, which regulators introduced after the May 2010 "flash crash," were able to contain the potential fallout. BATS credited the safety mechanism from the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying the situation proved "recent improvements in the U.S. equity market structure are working as intended."

BATS Chairman Will Give Up Post
BATS Global Markets Inc.'s directors voted to remove Joe Ratterman as chairman Tuesday, while expressing unanimous support for him to stay on as the company's chief executive.

A Message From BATS CEO Joe Ratterman

Presentation by HKEx Chief Executive Charles Li and Deputy Chief Financial Officer Vincent Kwong at the 15th Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference http://www.hkex.com.hk/eng/newsconsul/speech/2012/Documents/sp120322.pdf

Specialise or die, ASX told

THE Australian Securities Exchange should "bite the bullet" and position itself as an exploration and development specialist platform as the relevance of the Australian market in the global mining sector diminishes because of the dominance of the major players.

ASX trials small cap research scheme
The ASX has awarded funding to a 12-month $1 million equity research scheme to produce independent research on listed small and medium-caps.
Targeted at the 92% of ASX-listed entities (around 1,800) with a market capitalisation less than $1 bn.

ASX shares new data centre with Singaporean firm
ASX fee schedules indicate that customers paid $5000 a month for a physical rack with 2kW of power in Bondi as of July 2010.
As of December 2011, the ASX charged $2500 a month for a cabinet with 2kW of power in the Australian Liquidity Centre and $2000 a month for a cabinet in Bondi.

TOKYO AIM to Become TOKYO PRO Market

LSE OFFLOADS TOKYO AIM STAKE TO TSE
The Tokyo and London stock exchanges are bailing out on their joint venture market for growing companies in Japan, with the TSE agreeing to buy out its former partner.
The JV - 51% owned by the TSE and 49% by the LSE - has seen just one company list so far, prompting the London operator to sell up for an undisclosed sum.

HKEx Invests US$380 Million in Technology to Fuel Growth http://www.hkex.com.hk/eng/newsconsul/hkexnews/2012/120328news.htm

SGX REORGANISATION
From May SGX will split into five business units: derivatives, listings, market data and access, post-trade and securities. The current fixed income business will become a part of the securities market while commodities will be grouped within derivatives.

Instinet first to float EBBO in dark pool

Agency broker Instinet’s BlockMatch dark pool has added a consolidated pan-European price feed as it reference point for matching trades and now offers buy-side clients more flexibility on the price at which their trades are executed.
To qualify for inclusion in Instinet’s EBBO, trading venues must have a pan-European market share of over 2.5%. Currently this includes 14 domestic markets and MTFs BATS Chi-X Europe, Turquoise and Nordic-focused Burgundy. The individual stocks traded on qualifying venues are monitored on a real-time basis to ensure they stay above the 2.5% floor. Venue qualification is reviewed quarterly.

Possible Early Warning Sign for Market Crashes
Complexity researchers who study the behavior of stock markets may have identified a signal that precedes crashes.
They say the telltale sign is a measure of co-movement, or the likelihood of stocks to move in the same direction. When a market is healthy, co-movement is low. But in the months and years before a crash, co-movement seems to grow.
Regardless of whether stock prices go up or down or stay the same, they do so in tandem. People are copying each other, and a small nudge can send everyone in the same direction. The system appears primed for collapse.

BlackRock Plans to Start Bond-Trading System to Bypass Banks
Clients who use Aladdin will have to pay a fee to get access to BlackRock’s trading network. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (MKTX) (MKTX)’s electronic trading system for U.S. and European investment-grade, emerging markets and other types of bonds said earlier this month that it had a record $58.7 billion of transactions during March. Other electronic trading systems for fixed income include Tradeweb Markets LLC and Bloomberg LP


CLEARING

LSE's Rolet passes key LCH takeover test
LSE and LCH.Clearnet shareholders voted overwhelmingly to ratify Rolet's plan to take up to 60 percent of the clearing operator with an offer of 20 euros per share, which values LCH.Clearnet at 813 million euros ($1.1 billion).

NYSE TO INVEST $85 MILLION IN NEW EUROPEAN DERIVATIVES CLEARING HOUSE
Nyse Euronext is to spend $85 million on developing a new clearing house for its derivatives business in Europe, terminating an existing relationship with LCH.Clearnet.
Nyse will build on the recent investments made in Nyse Liffe Clearing, the central counterparty to all trades conducted on the Nyse Liffe market in London, and bring in house all remaining functionality currently out-sourced to LCH.Clearnet. The clearing house is expected to be fully operational by the summer of 2013. Derivatives trading in London will be shifted to the new platform in mid-2013, with European trading moving over in Q1 2014.
In the cash markets, Nyse says it will negotiate a new long term arrangement with LCH.Clearnet, replacing the current arrangements which terminate in December 2013.


POLICY

Australia: Implementing G20 commitment on OTC derivative reforms
Today the Government releases the final report of the Council of Financial Regulators (the Council) outlining its proposed next steps towards the implementation of Australia's G20 commitment to improve risk management and reduce systemic risk in the ‘over-the-counter' (OTC) markets for financial derivative products.
The Council has advised that where possible market driven solutions, in part driven by appropriate regulatory incentives, should be preferred. 

OTC Derivatives Market Reform Considerations

RBA Financial Stability Review.
Clean bill of health for Aussie banks – but don’t expect growth.
Includes table C1 of 29 G-SIBs (from FSB)
Domestically, the Council of Financial Regulators (CFR) has continued to consider how best to implement reforms to the regulation   of OTC derivatives markets in Australia, following its consultation with industry during the second half of 2011. The CFR’s conclusions will be published shortly. (p62)
Since the consultation process, the CFR has developed policy recommendations that are expected to be published shortly. As   flagged in the consultation paper, work is ongoing on issues relating to competition in clearing and settlement systems and the    segregation and portability of customer accounts of participants of CCPs. (p64)

Reviews: RBA Ticks Financial System Health, But Warns Banks, Again
The Reserve Bank has given the Australian financial system and banks a tick of good health in its first Stability Review of 2012. But the central bank has again cautioned banks and their investors not to expect rampant profit growth in the next year or so


The Kay Review of UK Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision Making
On 29 February 2012 Professor John Kay published the Interim Report of his independent review to examine investment in UK equity markets and its impact on the long-term performance and governance of UK quoted companies.
Interested parties with additional evidence relevant to the Review can make a submission to the secretariat by email to: kayreview@bis.gsi.gov.uk. The deadline for receiving further submissions is Friday 27 April 2012.

BIS Releases Working Paper on Necessary Data for Assessing Systemic Risk
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) issued a working paper that highlights some of the unique challenges to global systemic risk measurement with an eye toward identifying those high-priority areas where enhancements to data are most needed. The paper notes that while currently available data can be used more effectively, supervisors and other agencies need more and better data to construct even rudimentary measures of risks in the international financial system. Similarly, market participants need better information on aggregate positions and linkages to appropriately monitor and price risks. It adds that ongoing initiatives, such as the G20 Data Gaps Initiative and enhancements to the BIS international banking statistics, will help close data gaps.
Systemic Risks in Global Banking: What Can Available Data Tell Us and What More Data Are Needed?
http://www.bis.org/publ/work376.pdf



PARTICIPANTS

NOMURA DOMINATES JAPANESE EQUITIES

Nomura Securities Co. Dominates Japanese Research
Nomura is No. 1 in All-Japan Trading Team
Nomura Leads First All-Japan Sales Team



STUFF
Nuclear Power: Japan’s Sunset, Will We See Another Sunrise?
Tens of billions of dollars worth of extra LNG and thermal coal have been imported from overseas (much of it from Australia).
Figures out yesterday in Japan show the country's five largest power utilities will have lifted their spending on fuel by 60% by the time the books are ruled off for the current Japanese fiscal year tomorrow night.

Australia's Future Tax System
The Henry Review