FIA Boca-V 2021 wrapped up with FIA CEO Walt Lukken thanking attendees and welcoming 2021’s inductees into the Futures Industry Hall of Fame. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 3/18/2021.)

The second day of FIA Boca-V was reserved mainly for discussions focused on one of the most disruptive pieces of financial technology shaking up the markets today. I’m not talking about smartphone apps that let you make options bets based on nihilistic posts you read on Reddit - I’m talking about cryptocurrency. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 3/17/2021.)

The first-ever over-the-counter (OTC) trade of BitVol, the options-fuelled volatility index for bitcoin developed by T3 Index, the creators of the SPIKES index, was executed Wednesday by LedgerPrime, a quantitative digital asset investment firm owned by Ledger Holdings (the parent company of LedgerX). The counterparty for the trade was a cryptocurrency asset manager that was not named. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 3/10/2021.)

While major world events can cause ripple effects in the markets, the effects of the ongoing pandemic have felt more like a series of earthquakes. The year 2020 was an historic one for many reasons; in Nasdaq’s case, it was also the first year that it led all exchanges in total volume traded for equity options. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 2/4/2021.)

(Written by Suzanne Cosgrove and Matt Raebel)

The pandemic of 2020 and its associated economic fallout pushed the Cboe Volatility (VIX) Index to record highs, and it’s expected to stay elevated even as COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out and dispensed and global economies begin to recover in 2021, two analysts said in a presentation sponsored by the Cboe Options Institute. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 1/14/2021.)

ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing is a hot topic these days. The growing practice of investing in exclusively eco-friendly, socially-conscious companies is a developing industry, and from the sounds of the panelists at the FIA Asia-V panel, “Responding to Societal Issues” Wednesday, it’s still got a lot of growing to do. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 12/4/2020.)

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial industry has largely shifted to working from home this year. On day two of FIA Expo-V, executives from major institutions throughout the financial industry shared what they had learned from shifting to remote and work-from-home (WFH) business models, as well as coping with wild volatility, unprecedented trade volumes, and regulatory obstacles. Scott Andersen, the director and head of listed derivatives clearing at Societe Generale, led the discussion. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 11/13/2020.)

The Innovator’s Pavillion is one of the most intriguing parts of FIA Expo - a small, curated collection of starry-eyed startups aspiring to make their mark. On the first day of FIA’s virtual Expo-V conference, each of nine companies had the opportunity to give pre-recorded “demo day” style presentations to FIA Expo attendees before their “virtual booths” opened on Day 2. These presentations included Q&A rounds from judges. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 11/12/20.)

Jim Kharouf, communications director of IncubEx Inc., began “Innovation on the Edges” on Day 2 of FIA-V by saying “Happy Birthday” to the exchanges of each panelist present on the call he was moderating. The Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) is celebrating its twentieth year as a publicly-traded company; the Singapore Exchange (SGX) is twenty-one this year; and the Brazilian exchange Brasil Bolsa Balcao, or B3, is three years old. “But of course,” Kharouf said, “legacies for each go back way further.” (Originally published at John Lothian News on 11/12/20.)

The fourth guest speaker at MarketsWiki Education World of Opportunity 2020 was Andre Buckles, vice president of talent acquisition at the Options Clearing Corporation. Buckles has been hiring people for various companies, including Northern Trust and Zurich North America, for over two decades, and he had plenty of tips for the students in the audience looking for advice on how to get hired. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 7/23/20.)

T3 Index, the creators of the SPIKES Volatility Index have created a new volatility index, which uses bitcoin options to track the volatility of the world’s first and most widely-traded cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC). (Originally published at John Lothian News on 7/15/20.)

Cboe Global Markets has been reopened for more than two weeks now. How have things been going? According to Cboe, it’s been a smooth ride. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 7/7/20.)

Day one of IDX-V concluded with a discussion about much the same topic as the panel that preceded it - that is, how the coronavirus impacted the markets, and how things will be different from now on. This time, it was a panel consisting mostly of managing directors and board members instead of exchange executives discussing how the pandemic affected derivatives trading volume and volatility, the brief short-selling ban in the European markets, and dividends. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 6/24/20.)

February is known as the month of love - the month in which Valentine’s Day takes place. Options traders certainly got a lot of love last week, when the stock market saw its biggest crash since 2008. (Originally published at John Lothian News on 3/5/20.)

When you lose your digital assets, there isn’t exactly a 1-800 number you can call to seek legal recompense. It’s still the Wild West in a lot of ways…investors still get scammed, the heads of new platforms are still getting pinched for running unregistered securities offerings, and bitcoin evangelists still hate the idea of regulating digital assets at all. Meanwhile, institutional traders are still in large part waiting in the wings. (Originally published 12/6/2019 at John Lothian News.)