Top Headlines

Buy Side Sees FICC Research Glut – MarketsMedia

Asset managers are using fewer research providers for fixed income, currency and commodities but said this is not having a negativeimpact on returns, highlighting a potential oversupply.

Euro at 20: Success Amid all the Flaws – Reuters

The euro turns 20 in January but came of age as the world’s number two currency some time ago. After two decades of relentless critique and predictions of doom, the single currency has already outlived many of its harshest critics’ predictions when it was born in 1999.

The Worst Front Office Banking Jobs in Late 2018. And the Best – eFinancialCareers

If you want to be assured of continued employment ina front office banking job in 2019, there are a few preferential places to be right now. The best front office jobs: Commodities, equity derivatives, G10 FX, prime services, equity capital markets, cash equities and emerging market macro.

The Convergence of Investment Research and Alternative Data – Integrity Research

We see the research and alternative data industries converging as firms try to provide investors with unique insights and signals.

Regulatory News

FSB Names New Chair to Replace Mark Carney – Profit & Loss

The Financial Stability Board has named Randal Quarles,governor and vice chairman for supervision at the US Federal Reserve, as its new chair and Klaas Knot, president of De Nederlandsche Bank as vice chair.Both men have been appointed for a three-year term starting on 2 December2018

Euro Bond Traders, Platforms Trigger “Plan B” for No-Deal Brexit – Reuters

In the latest high-profile move, the London Stock Exchange said last week that its MTS Cash platform would shift a fifth of itstrading volume – which averages 13.4 billion euros a day – to Milan. Trading inBritish government bonds will stay in London.

European CCP Association Elects Co-Chair – MarketsMedia

The European Association of CCP Clearing Houses (EACH) unanimously elected Julien Jardelot, Global Head of Post-trade and Technology, Regulatory Strategy LSEG, as Co-Chair of EACH for the current term of the EACH Board expiring March 2020.

Crypto News 

Nasdaq Plans to Pursue Bitcoin Futures Despite Plunging Prices, Sources Say – Bloomberg

Nasdaq is moving ahead with a plan to list Bitcoin futures, according to two people familiar with the matter, betting on sustainedinterest despite the cryptocurrency’s dramatic plunge over the past year.

Bitcoin Continues Steep Fall as Cryptocurrency Collapse Worsens – The Wall Street Journal (subscription)

The cryptocurrency plunged below $4,000 over the weekend and fell below $3,650 late Monday. Last week, it lost nearly a third of its value in seven days, one of its worst weekly selloffs on record.

Digital Asset Sec Lending Platform Gains In-Principle DLT Provider Status in Gibraltar –The Trade Crypto

Lendingblock gains in-principle authority in Gibraltar to operate as a DLT provider, as it begins onboarding institutions ahead of launch early next year.

Coinbase Joins Securitize Funding Round – Finextra

Securitize, a platform for issuing and managing compliant digitised securities on the blockchain, has raised $12.75 million in a Series A funding round led by Blockchain Capital and joined by Coinbase’s VC arm.

Jane Street and Flow Traders are Actively Trading the Top Five Cryptocurrencies fora New Exchange-Traded Product – The Block

Jane Street Financial and Flow Traders, two quantitative trading firms and liquidity providers, have become active traders of bitcoin, XRP, ether, bitcoin cash, and lite coin as authorized participants for the Amun Crypto ETP. 

Company News 

LCH ForexClear Compresses $4.5 billion of Cleared Notional – The Trade

LCH has helped its ForexClear members reduce notional outstanding by $4.5 billion, with Citi and Standard Chartered among the first participants to actively compress their trades through the service.

Refinitiv Enhances Thai Baht FX Benchmarks Through WM/Reuters Spot Rate Service – Refinitiv

Refinitiv, formerly the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters, is enhancing the WM/Reuters Thai Baht Spot FX Benchmarks with data sourced from Matching, Refinitiv’s anonymous central limit order book.

UBS Shakes Up Leadership of Fixed Income Trading Team – Financial News (subscription)

The Swiss bank has named Mark Tinworth as co-head of linear rates trading alongside Duncan Haig, which is part of a broader set of leadership changes.

Dinosaur Launches New FX Service – Profit & Loss

Dinosaur Financial Group, a broker-dealer and subsidiary of Dinosaur Group Holdings, has launched a new global FX trading service.

Fixed Income Hedging Set to Climb as Rates Rise – Financial Times (subscription)

Open interest in fixed income contracts at Europe’s two largest futures exchanges has soared in the final quarter of the year. ICE Futures Europe, which trades contracts at the short end of the yield curve, hit a record high of nearly 11m contracts earlier this month. Deutsche Börse’s Eurex, whose contracts cover longer-dated futures, rose to 9.6m from 8m a year ago in October.

BCS Launches Synthetic Prime Brokerage Services – Waters Technology (subscription)

As Moscow Exchange-listed derivatives are unrecognized by the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the offering provides US-dollar denomination and enables global buy-side and sell-side institutions to access Russian equities and derivatives without the need for local settlement or registering of a ruble account.

Ice Changing Margin Model for Move into Options – Risk.net (subscription)

Ice Clear Credit has received regulatory approval to switch from its stress-based initial margin methodology to one based on Monte Carlo simulations – a step, the clearer says, that paves the way for it to launch clearing for options on credit default swaps indexes.

NSE to Launch Weekly Dollar-Rupee Derivatives Contracts on December 3 – Business Standard

India’s National Stock Exchange has received Sebi’s approval to introduce weekly derivatives contracts on USD-INR, which it will launch from 3 December.

Market Savvy 

Soft Brexit Looks Likely after Difficult Endgame: Morgan Stanley – Global Investor (subscription)

Morgan Stanley economist Daniele Antonucci expects a decision in the first quarter of 2019 for a soft Brexit.

Sterling Weakens after Trump Says Brexit Deal May Hamper Trade with US – Reuters

Sterling slumped versus the dollar and the euro on Tuesday after falling through some key levels overnight on comments from US President Donald Trump that a Brexit deal could hamper trade ties with the United States.

Trump Talk Pushes Dollar to Near Two-Week Highs – Reuters

The US dollar rallied on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump said that he would push ahead with tariffs on Chinese goods, fuelling concern about a Sino-US trade war and boosting demand for the greenback.

Currency Traders Place Cheap Bet That Trump and Xi Could Reach a Truce – Bloomberg

Currency traders aren’t ruling out the prospect that the highly anticipated meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this weekend will deliver a trade truce.