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Semiannual Report on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies
February 28, 2011--The Treasury Department's Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies outlines the currency practices of America's major trading partners.
view the Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies
Source: US Department of the Treasury
CBOE Holdings Announces Plans For S&P 500 Index Options on C2
February 28, 2011--CBOE Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBOE) announced plans today to list on C2, the company's new alternative exchange, an electronically-traded version of its flagship S&P 500 Index option (SPX), which it is calling "SPXpm." The Company submitted a rule filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today and plans to list SPXpm upon SEC approval.
Under the proposed rule change filed with the SEC, SPXpm will be identical in structure to CBOE's traditional SPX index option product, except it will have "p.m." settlement.
The company intends to broaden its customer reach by providing this "point-and-click," "p.m." settled version of its most actively traded index product. As proposed, SPXpm will enable customers to trade SPX options with a settlement convention found in the OTC market, without having to sacrifice the benefits and safeguards of exchange trading and clearing.
"We worked very closely with our customers to determine how best to design and roll out an electronic version of this very popular product," said William J. Brodsky, CBOE Holdings Chairman and CEO. "Feedback from market participants indicated that p.m. settlement could bring new users into our market."
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Source: CBOE Holdings
CBOE and CFE to Begin Trading CBOE Gold ETF Volatility Index (GVZ) Futures and Options
February 28, 2011---- CBOE Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBOE) today announced plans to launch futures and options on the CBOE Gold ETF Volatility Index (Ticker - GVZ). Pending regulatory approval, CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) will begin trading GVZ futures on Friday, March 25, and CBOE will introduce GVZ options a few weeks later.
The calculation of the CBOE Gold ETF Volatility Index ("Gold VIX") is based on the well-known CBOE VIX methodology applied to options on the SPDR Gold Trust (Ticker - GLD). The Gold VIX is an up-to-the-minute market estimate of the expected 30-day volatility of GLD, calculated using real-time bid/ask quotes of GLD options that are listed on CBOE.
"Each year we've added greater depth to our suite of volatility products," CBOE Holdings Chairman and CEO William J. Brodsky said. "Most recently we've extended the reach of our VIX methodology to new asset classes, including highly active commodity ETF options. With the addition of CBOE Gold ETF Volatility Index futures and options, market participants will have valuable products that will allow them to hedge volatility in a new way."
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Source: CBOE
CME Group to Offer Significant Cross-Margining Efficiencies Between Interest Rate Futures Positions and U.S. Treasury Securities
New Financial Instruments Clearing Membership (FICM) Provides Margin Benefits of up to 65 Percent
February 28, 2011--
CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, announced the creation of a new clearing membership class for interest rate futures allowing for significant margin offsets between CME Group Interest Rate futures and U.S. Treasury securities. The Financial Instruments Clearing Membership (FICM), which is expected to be offered by the end of the first quarter, will provide margin offsets of up to 65 percent to qualified firms that trade both U.S. Treasury securities and CME Group Interest Rate futures products.
"We are establishing this new clearing membership category to provide customers who trade both U.S. Treasury securities and CME Group's Interest Rate futures with greater capital efficiencies, enabling firms to trade cash/futures strategies in a highly cost-effective manner," said Bryan Durkin, CME Group's Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Products and Services. "With our interest rate complex open interest at 37 million contracts or $30 trillion in notional value, the new FICM membership provides a strong value proposition for our global customers who trade these products."
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Source: CME Group
CME launches pre-emptive attack on NYSE Liffe
February 28, 2011--CME Group, operator of the largest US futures exchange, has launched a pre-emptive strike against rival exchange operator NYSE Euronext by offering cross-margining between its two flagship futures products in a bid to undermine similar plans by its New York rival.
The move aims to cut the cost of using the CME’s products – the two most widely traded futures contracts in the world – by reducing the total amount of upfront margin payments that must be made to trade them.
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Source: FT.com
Factor Advisors Launches New ETFs on the NYSE Arca
February 28, 2011-- Factor Advisors, a New York-based asset management firm, announced the launch of FactorShares, a family of spread exchange traded funds (ETFs) that allow investors to simultaneously hold both a bull and a bear position in one leveraged ETF.
Designed to ease spread trading and lower its cost barriers, the company noted, the new FactorShares ETFs will enable investors to track two market segments, one long and one short, in a single ETF position. The initial five FactorShares ETFs pair up major asset classes from among the S&P 500 Index, US Treasury Bonds, Gold, Oil and the US Dollar.
"As a portfolio manager, I used to become frustrated about being charged twice the transaction fees and double the margin requirements in order to implement spread trades," explained Stuart Rosenthal, CEO and Co-Founder of Factor Advisors. "I was determined to bring greater efficiency to spread trading. With the creation of FactorShares, spread trading among the major asset classes requiring two separate positions and indiscriminate rebalancing is in the past."
The initial suite of FactorShares spread ETFs are designed to rebalance daily to achieve the desired effect of maintaining dollar neutrality. FactorShares ETFs are also capital efficient, targeting a daily leverage ratio of 4:1, where each dollar invested provides approximately two dollars of long futures exposure and two dollars of short futures exposure, immediately after daily rebalancing. FactorShares ETFs seek investment results for a single day only, not for longer periods.
In 2009, Rosenthal teamed up with investment banker and entrepreneur Karlheinz Muhr and UCLA Anderson School of Management's award-winning Professor of Finance, Dr. Richard Roll, to found Factor Advisors. The three men believed that Dr. Roll's risk factor-based investment approach could be the basis for creating simple spread ETFs and by this shared viewpoint FactorShares products were created.
"The innovation behind FactorShares is another industry milestone for transforming alternative investment strategies into accessible, transparent ETF products" said Muhr, Chairman of Factor Advisors. "The introduction of these ETFs is Factor Advisors' first step in our commitment to building a comprehensive suite of factor-based products that will advance the way the marketplace approaches alternative investing."
Factor Advisors has also entered into a marketing agreement with Interactive Brokers, a global low-cost provider of electronic trading, to offer its brokerage clients commission-free trading of FactorShares ETFs with no minimum holding period and no short-term trading fees.
More Information:
www.factorshares.com
Source: Closeup Media
SSgA unveils two emerging markets SPDR ETFs
February 24, 2011--State Street Global Advisors (SSgA)*, the asset management business of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), today announced that the SPDR® S&P® Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (NYSE:EDIV) and the SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF (NYSE:EBND) began trading on the NYSE Arca on February 24, 2011. The addition of these two exchange traded funds (ETFs) strengthens State Street’s family of emerging markets SPDR ETFs.
“Against a backdrop of historically low Treasury yields, demand for precise exposure to innovative debt and dividend instruments is climbing,” said James Ross, senior managing director and global head of SPDR Exchange Traded Funds at State Street Global Advisors. “The launch of the SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF and SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF helps to underscore the evolution of views on diversification – investors no longer see emerging markets as a single, uniform asset class.”
The SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF is designed to track the performance of the S&P Emerging Markets Dividend Opportunities Index. The Index is comprised of 100 of the highest yielding emerging markets stocks, based on market capitalization, in the S&P Dividend Opportunities family of indices. Constituents include publicly traded companies with market capitalizations of at least $1 billion (float-adjusted market cap of $300 million). The SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF’s expense ratio is 0.59%.
The SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF is designed to track the price and yield performance of the Barclays Capital EM Local Currency Government Diversified Index. The Index includes government bonds issued by countries outside of the United States, in local currencies, that have a remaining maturity of one year or more and are rated B3/B-/B- or higher using the middle of Moody’s Investor Service, Inc., Standard & Poor’s, Inc. and Fitch, Inc. respectively. Each of the component securities in the Index is a constituent of the Barclays Capital EM Local Currency Government Diversified Index. The SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF’s expense ratio is 0.5%.
State Street manages $255 billion** in SPDR ETF assets worldwide (as of December 31, 2010) and is one of the largest ETF providers in the US and globally.
Source: State Street Global Advisors
CBOE S&P 500 Skew Index, Ticker “SKEW”, Now Live
February 25, 2011--CBOE is now publishing values for the CBOE S&P 500 Skew Index (ticker symbol: SKEW), a benchmark measure of the perceived risk of extreme negative moves — often referred to as "tail risk" or a "black swan" event — in U.S. equity markets.
The SKEWSM and VIX indexes are different, yet complementary measures of risk. VIX is a measure of the level of volatility whereas SKEW is a measure of the shape of volatility. An increase in VIX indicates a greater probability of large S&P 500 moves whether up or down. An increase in SKEW indicates a higher probability of extreme down moves.
For more information on the CBOE S&P 500 Skew Index, including a white paper and values, see www.cboe.com/skew.
Source: CBOE
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
February 25, 2011--The current reports for the week of Tuesday, February 22, 2011 are now available.
view updates
Source: CFTC.gov
US One Files with the SEC
Febuary 25, 2011--US One has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the Russell Aggressive Growth ETF
Russell Consistent Growth ETF
Russell Growth at a Reasonable Price ETF
Russell Contrarian ETF
Russell Equity Income ETF
Russell Low P/E ETF
Russell Small & Mid Cap Defensive Value ETF
Russell Small Cap Defensive Value ETF
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
