Wall Street Journal (October 7)
“Natural gas stocks are alarmingly low around the world, and prices in most places have never been higher after surging to new records…. Demand has jumped as economies have bounced back from pandemic shutdowns, and the squeeze has caught traders, shipowners and energy executives off guard.” Nations that “have wound down coal-fired plants and become more dependent on gas” are particularly vulnerable and, in some cases, restarting mothballed power plants despite higher GHG emissions.
Tags: Coal, Demand, Economies, Energy, GHG emissions, Natural gas, Pandemic, Prices, Records, Shipowners, Shutdowns, Squeeze, Stocks, Surging, Traders, Vulnerable
Institutional Investor (January 11)
“Less than 10 percent of institutional investors currently outsource their trading desks,” but a recent survey suggests they are starting to warm to the once ‘unthinkable’ practice. “Out of the 84 traders polled, 32 percent called outsourced trading desks a ‘good solution’ for managing flow and achieving the best execution, up from 20 percent in last year’s survey.”
Tags: Execution, Flow, Institutional investors, Outsource, Survey, Traders, Trading desks, Unthinkable
Institutional Investor (October 17)
Due to strained resources, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is less likely to investigate insider trading that occurs further afield from its field offices. Traders seem to know this. “A 100-kilometer increase in distance between a firm and the nearest SEC office resulted in a 16.5 percent jump in illegal trades at that firm. Meanwhile, firms within 100 kilometers of the SEC were less likely to engage in these types of trades.”
Tags: Distance, Firm, Illegal trades, Insider trading, Investigate, Resources, SEC, Traders
Wall Street Journal (August 21)
“Investors are running out of reasons to keep buying U.S. stocks, exposing a growing number of warning signs. The historic calm that enveloped U.S. stocks for much of this year has been upended twice in the past two weeks…. It is too soon to call the end of the eight-year bull market, investors, traders and analysts say, but many agree the indiscriminate optimism that characterized the postelection rally is evaporating.”
Tags: Analysts, Bull market, Indiscriminate, Investors, Optimism, Rally, Stocks, Traders, U.S., Warning signs
Bloomberg (April 11)
“For global equity investors and Shinzo Abe, it’s splitsville.” For 13 straight weeks during 2016, “foreign traders have been pulling out of Tokyo’s stock market.” They’ve dumped “$46 billion of shares as economic reports deteriorated, stimulus from the Bank of Japan backfired and the yen’s surge pressured exporters. The benchmark Topix index is down 18 percent in 2016, the world’s steepest declines behind Italy.”
Tags: Abe, BOJ, Equity investors, Exporters, Italy, Shares, Stock market, Tokyo, Topix, Traders, Yen
Bloomberg (May 17)
China’s “influence over global bond markets is beginning to eclipse that of the Federal Reserve. While traders still keep a close watch on decisions made by Fed Chair Janet Yellen in Washington, economic shifts in China are starting to matter even more for the global economy.”
Tags: Bond markets, China, China Economy, Fed, Influence, Traders, U.S., Yellen
The Economist (February 9)
“Even as another nuclear provocation looms, hope glimmers for the world’s most oppressed people…. a revolutionary force is rising from below: a new class of traders and merchants. Capitalism is seeping through the bamboo curtain.” The North Korean state has repeatedly tried and failed to stamp out this developing class. “North Korea’s capitalists are here to stay” and they are creating cracks from within and deserve the world’s support. “Nothing is more potent than exposing people to the prosperity and freedoms of the world around them.”
Tags: Capitalism, Freedom, Merchants, North Korean, Nuclear, Prosperity, Traders
Financial Times (October 4)
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its findings on the May 6 Flash Crash when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,000 points before bouncing back…all in a breathtaking 20 minutes. The cause was an institutional investor’s $4.1 billion sale of so-called “e-mini” futures contracts to hedge against an equity position. The trade appears to have been legitimate. The SEC must take action to ensure legitimate trades don’t result in excess volatility that scares investors away from stock markets. Measures should include circuit breakers and regulation of high-frequency traders, including requirements that they serve as market makers.
Tags: Circuit breakers, Dow Jones, Flash crash, SEC, Traders
