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What Is MarketsWiki?

MarketsWiki is an online open source knowledge base for current and historical information about the global exchange traded capital, derivatives, environmental and related OTC markets. MarketsWiki is powered by content contributions from paid readers of the John Lothian Newsletter, Environmental Markets Newsletter and Frontier Markets Newsletter and from a team of professional financial journalists, educators and consultants.


Featured Article

Five Minutes with Scott A. Brusso

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Scott A. Brusso is a director of foreign exchange (FX) for the CME Group. He was appointed to this position in July of 2007 after working in the area of currency product marketing for the exchange since the early 90s. Brusso, who coaches kids in gymnastics and baseball in his free time, recently talked with MarketsWiki's Christine Nielsen about the evolution of CME Group's Forex products and his assimilation into a financial market position after rather comfortably traveling the world.



Q: How did you get your start in the financial industry? Was it always your goal to be involved with the markets?

A: I have three sisters. Their husbands worked at the CME, and two of them worked in the Forex quadrant. I started in currencies. I was basically working with them, they were running arbitrage business between the banks and trading floor. It wasn't my goal at all to be involved with the markets. It was accidental - that's if anything really is accidental.


Q: I don't see it listed on your LinkedIn page, but I've heard that you spent time training as a monk. Could you touch on that?

A: Yes, I became a monk. I don't, in general, talk about it, unless I have a reason to talk about it. I had been traveling around the world. Africa, Afghanistan. I found myself in Northern India, coming in contact with Tibetans (The Dalai Lama) was a life-changing experience. It was more to do with spending time with them, learning from them. Because of visa issues, I went back and forth between India and Nepal for seven years. Their teachings are based on peace - compassion and sensitivity for all forms of life. You don't hear too much about that in our daily life here (in the States).

I didn't have any culture shock at all traveling around the world. It was more of an adjustment moving back to Chicago. If the traders bought 5s on the trading floor, they were praying for it to tick up to 6, etc. They were "praying" for personal gain. In monastic life they pray for world peace and happiness. The key was trying to bridge these two worlds. I grew up the same as most of the individuals on the trading floor so I could relate, but I had changed.


Q: What is the most challenging project that you've worked on while employed at the CME? What project has been the most fulfilling?

A: The most challenging was taking the FX products around-the-clock electronically. Here, FX products were traded in open outcry. They were at around 5,000 to 6,000 at night (in terms of volume) as of the April of 2001 launch date. We had to make sure we "set the table" correctly (by having liquidity providers, etc., involved).

You really must know your customers. It was a challenge because many were set up to be on the trading floor or had moved to the OTC market. We had to make sure the technology worked for the users. The launch was excellent. The first day market makers were streaming prices and buy side customers were trading.

Chart From CME Group
Chart From CME Group


Q: How important was it for the Forex complex and for the CME overall to put FX products on Globex?

A: Hopefully, history will prove that it was essential. If we didn't go electronic, we could have opened the door for competitors to take that business.


Q: Were there lessons learned through the lack of success of FXMarketSpace? If so, what were they?

A: FXMarketSpace was possibly ahead of its time, but one lesson was customers wanted to decouple execution from clearing.


Q: How do E-Micro Futures fit into the CME's product offerings and vision for the complex? What about the challenge the product poses to cash FX business?

A: The E-micro (retail) world has grown dramatically. Micros are designed for the small, retail-type customers. We're adding this to the CME FX suite to extend our offering to meet all the customer needs.


Q: What are your hobbies? What is the farthest you have gone to pursue this/these hobbies?

A: I like to play tennis. I don't have that much time. I coach kids in gymnastics and baseball. I enjoy working with children. You can show children life lessons through sports. For example, with a back handspring, when they accomplish something they thought was not possible you can emphasize that you should never say you can't do something...throughout life people will tell you can't do things, never believe that you can't do something.


Q: What were your impressions of the CME and the futures industry upon your first day on the job at CME? What are your observations about the exchange and industry now?

A: I started at the CME in 1983. There is always change. The exchange overall has really developed. It's more user friendly. Electronic trade has leveled the playing field. Once on Globex, everyone is on equal footing. It's become even more level and allowed for all users down to the individual investor.


Q: Is there anything else that you'd like people to know about you? Anything else you'd like them to know about the CME's Forex products?

A: I hope they realize that I do care about them. I'm not just out for myself. I do care about them, that they do well and that we all grow on a business and personal level. The CME allows them the largest, fairest market from which to trade.


Job Providers and Hunters

Looking for work? Looking to hire someone? MarketsWiki serves both sides of that equation.

If you are a manager with a job opening to fill, you can post the details for the opening on our Job Postings page. Also, we just created (in November) a new feature so that people can identify themselves on their biography pages as looking for work. Take a look at the Job Seekers category to see who's hunting -- you might find the right person just by looking here!

If you're one of those people looking for work, and if you have a biography page here in MarketsWiki, tag yourself as being in the job market! You can do it yourself if you have wiki editing access; take a look at our handy help guide: Using the Job Seeker Template. If you don't have a page yet, or don't want to edit the page yourself, just get in touch and we'll help you get set up!

There's no cost to either employer or job hunter; our goal is simply to help the community stay connected.


Event Spotlight


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4th Annual FIA/OIC New York Equity Options Conference

When: Sept. 22-23, 2009
Where: New York Marriott Marquis
Full info: [1]
Details:
The Options Industry Council and the Futures Industry Association have partnered to coordinate the fourth New York Equity Options Conference. Last year, more than 350 delegates representing more than 138 firms attended, including representatives from brokerage firms, funds, exchanges, regulatory organizations, law firms, service organizations, and members of the press.


Newsletters

John Lothian Newsletter

The John Lothian Newsletter is a daily email intelligence briefing edited by John J. Lothian dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of the futures and securities industries, and the capital and derivatives markets, through the dissemination of information and commentary.

The John Lothian Newsletter was launched during the summer or 2000 and was offered for free for its first 3 years. In 2003, the newsletter switched to a voluntary pay format. Readers are asked to pay for the newsletter if they find it valuable. An annual subscription for the John Lothian Newsletter in 2008 is $115. Enterprise rates are available for organizations with 5 or more readers.

Environmental Markets Newsletter

Environmental Markets Newsletter is a daily email intelligence briefing editd by Jim Kharouf that includes news, notices, press releases and price data about environmentally-based markets.

Environmental Markets Newsletter and the John Lothian Newsletter are designed to keep readers informed in the fast growing environmental market space and the futures and securities industries respectively. Both aggregate public and restricted access information available over Internet in an easy to use, reader friendly format. Utilizing a headline, lead paragraph and hyperlink format, readers can quickly assess the stories they want to read more on and those they want to glance over.

Environmental Markets was launched in June 2006 by John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. and is offered on a subscription basis for $150 per year. New readers are welcome to receive Environmental Markets FREE for one month. Enterprise rates are available to organizations with 10 or more subscribers. Environmental Markets subscribers receive 2 daily emails, one first thing in the morning in the U.S. that covers the environmental market space. The second email, the PM edition of Environmental Markets, is a full copy of the John Lothian Newsletter. The John Lothian Newsletter also includes an Environmental Trading section.

John Lothian Newsletter - Metals Edition

John Lothian Newsletter - Metals Edition is a FREE daily email newsletter providing traders, investors and other market participants with a comprehensive aggregation of news and commentary about the metals markets. It will officially launch on June 1, 2009.

Frontier Markets Newsletter

John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. has suspended publication of Frontier Markets Newsletter (FMN) as of the beginning of 2009 pending a reworking of the format.




Headlines

NYSE’s Liffe Puts Credit-Default Clearing Project Under Review

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By Nandini Sukumar
July 1 (Bloomberg) -- NYSE Euronext’s Liffe derivatives market put its project to provide clearing for credit-default swaps traded outside exchanges under review after the service failed to attract any users. (more)

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Trading Technologies CEO Responds to Article in Local Business Journal

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From Harris Brumfield, CEO, Trading Technologies: CHICAGO, July 1, 2009 — Recently Crain's Chicago Business ran an article about the upcoming launch of the ELX Futures exchange and Trading Technologies (TT). The article centers on the notion that "bad blood" between Howard Lutnick (the CEO of BGC Partners) and me is the reason why TT currently has no near-term plans to connect to ELX. Please allow me to address this point... (more)

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Geneva Trading Appoints John Barun as Managing Director and Chief Information Officer
After more than a decade serving the industry, CMC will be closing its doors

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Geneva Trading USA, LLC, a global, multi-asset class proprietary trading company, named John Barun as managing director and chief information officer. In this newly created position Barun will be a member of Geneva’s strategic planning committee and will be responsible for developing and executing the firm’s global IT strategy. He will report to Mary McDonnell, president and CEO...Barun most recently served as president and CEO of Capital Markets Consulting, a technology consulting company servicing the financial industry. (more)

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Treasury to name up to 9 managers for toxic-asset plan: source

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NEW YORK - The Treasury Department is expected to name as many as nine fund managers to operate the long-awaited Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) to cleanse banks of toxic assets, a person familiar with the plan said on Wednesday. (more)

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Whistleblower rewards urged
By Joanna Chung in New York - Published: July 2 2009
Regulators should pay whistleblowers for information about frauds, according to an official investigating the US Securities and Exchange Commission's failure to uncover Bernard Madoff's $65bn scam. David Kotz, SEC inspector-general, said "bounty" schemes would provide "necessary incentives" for individuals to bring complaints about possible illegal activity. (more)

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CDS clearing plans not 'bulletproof'
By Aline van Duyn in New York and Hal Weitzman in Chicago
Dealers and investors in the $26,500bn credit default swaps market have told the Federal Reserve that proposals to give investors access to centralised clearing are not "bulletproof" and legal and regulatory changes are needed to achieve significant reductions in risk. (more)

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Bank pushed to step up QE

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By David Oakley and Michael Mackenzie
The Bank of England reached a milestone this week. Its purchases of UK government bonds, or gilts, rose above ¢G100bn as part of its quantitative easing programme - a method of pumping money into the banking system to stimulate the wider economy. (more)

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CME Revs Up for Surge in Carbon Credit Trading

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By Penny Crosman
As the Senate debates the American Clean Energy and Security Act recently passed in the House that attempts to create a cap-and-trade scheme for carbon emissions in the U.S. similar to Europe's, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has been ramping up its efforts to prepare for an expected surge in carbon credit trading. (more)

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LSE Cuts Fees, Changes Structure to Fight Competition
By Nandini Sukumar
July 1 (Bloomberg) -- London Stock Exchange Group Plc will change the way it charges for trading and cut fees as Chief Executive Officer Xavier Rolet squares up to new rivals, which together have grabbed more than 30 percent of trading. (more)

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2 Midsize Japanese Banks Plan to Merge
By HIROKO TABUCHI
TOKYO — Two Japanese banks backed by American investors said Wednesday that they would merge next year in a bid to recoup large losses on risky investments overseas and bad loans at home. Shinsei Bank, which is about one-quarter owned by the investor J. Christopher Flowers, and Aozora Bank, which is controlled by the buyout firm Cerberus Capital Management, will form the sixth-largest bank in Japan, with combined assets of about 18 trillion yen, or $186 billion, according to a joint statement. (more)

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Official Calls for British Banks to Shrink
LONDON — After forcing German banks that received state aid to drastically shrink, the European competition commissioner is now causing unease among some of their British rivals by saying that they are next. (more)

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Best in Class: US Bancorp an Overlooked Gem
Marketwatch
US Bancorp (USB Quote) has remained one of the strongest banks throughout the financial crisis, although it is easily overlooked among its large-cap counterparts. (more)

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Small Broker Looks to Go Big Time with ICAP Investment

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James Ramage - Traders Magazine
Two executives, with backing from interdealer broker ICAP, are set to transform a 30-year-old New York-based broker into a bigger player in the equities and derivatives space. That's the task at hand for former Collins Stewart execs Shawn McLoughlin and Joel Plasco, who last month acquired Reynders, Gray & Co., a firm that started as a floor brokerage in 1979 at the New York Stock Exchange. It later launched an upstairs desk and currently has 11 traders. (more)

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Metropolitan Bank getting $78M in TARP money
By: Steve Daniels
(Crain's) - Chicago's second-largest privately held bank group, owned by high-profile civic contributors Peter and Paula Fasseas, has obtained more than $78 million in federal bailout money. It's the largest equity infusion to date for a local private lender from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief. (more)

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Rogue trader' costs PVM $10m
By Javier Blas and Izabella Kaminska in London PVM Oil Associates, the world's largest over-the-counter oil brokerage, said on Thursday it had lost just under $10m after one of its employees engaged in "unauthorised trading" in Brent futures. (more)


Upcoming Events

Have an event you'd like to list? Put a new section in the Upcoming Events page and we'll put it here on the front page too!

CTA EXPO 2009
October 21, 2009
Chicago, IL
Get the details here

4th Annual FIA/OIC New York Equity Options Conference
September 22-23, 2009
Marriott Marquis, New York
Get the details here

25th Annual FIA Futures & Options Expo
October 21-23, 2009
Location TBA
Get the details here

5th Annual FIA Asia Derivatives Conference
December 2-4, 2009
Venue TBA - Singapore
Get the details here


MarketsWiki Spotlight

(Statistics snapshot as of July 02, 2009. Average visitor statistics are based on site traffic in the last month.)

Total pages in wiki (articles, stubs, redirects): 12,789
Number of articles in wiki: 4639
Number of uploaded images and documents: 1504
Number of registered users: 245
 
Number of page views since creation: 2,466,416
Average daily visits (including weekends): 608
Average pages per visit: 3.08
Number of countries with visitors: 127


Most-Viewed Pages (excluding the main page)


Newest Article Pages

Sponsorship, Subscriptions, Editing

MarketsWiki is a companion to the John Lothian Newsletter (JLN), Jim Kharouf's Environmental Markets Newsletter (EMN) and the Rob Luke edited Frontier Markets Newsletter (FMN). JLN, EMN and FMN are daily email overviews of the news, opinions and happenings in the financial markets, environmental markets and emerging markets.

To preserve the integrity of the information here, editing and contribution is limited to paid subscribers of either newsletter (though anyone can read the contents on this site). The subscriptions help pay for our team of professional journalists and technical support consultants, and the limited access ensures that we're not fending off and repairing vandalism and disinformation in our articles.

We are actively seeking sponsors and content contributors to keep this project growing rapidly!

If you'd like information about sponsoring the project, please contact us at info@johnlothian.com for details. If you'd like to subscribe to the newsletters, either to become a contributor or simply to stay informed in the rapidly changing financial world, visit our signup page. And finally, if you're already a paid newsletter subscriber and want access to the wiki, send an email request to Jon Matte, and he'll get you set up with a user id and a startup guide.

MarketsWiki Development Team

John J. Lothian Jim Kharouf Christine Nielsen Sarah Rudolph Rob Luke Jonathan Matte Jeff Bergstrom John C. Nelson Jessica Titlebaum Ryan Lothian Chris McMahon Laura Oatney
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