Global ETF News Older than One Year
FTSE Licences UBS AG With New Currency Solution-FTSE WPU
May 8, 2012--May 8, 2012--FTSE Group ("FTSE"), the award winning global index provider grants UBS AG the first licence for the recently launched currency solution, FTSE WPU (World Parity Unit).
The swift adoption of FTSE WPU will allow UBS to offer a range of investment and hedging products linked to FTSE WPU, to its global client base. The licensing highlights investor appetite for new currency-risk management tools, as currency fluctuations continue to play a significant risk in international investment.
Launched earlier this year, FTSE WPU is an innovative addition to the growing range of FTSE’s non-equity indices, which includes a variety of currency and commodity indices. FTSE WPU represents a single ‘currency unit’ comprised of a liquid basket of the seven most traded developed market currencies, the four BRIC currencies and storable commodities; gold and oil.
Source: FTSE
NYSE Euronext Announces Trading Volumes for April 2012
Global Derivatives ADV in April Down 7% Year-over-Year; Up 9% from 1Q12 Levels
#1 in U.S. Equity Options in April; Record Monthly Market Share for NYSE Amex Options
April European Cash ADV Up 23% and U.S. Cash ADV Down 13% Year-over-Year
May 8, 2012--NYSE Euronext (NYX) today announced trading volumes for its global derivatives and cash equities exchanges for April 20121.
Trading volumes were mixed both year-over-year and month-over-month across most venues, but reflected some strengthening relative to weak first quarter 2012 levels. Global derivatives average daily volume (“ADV”) of 8.2 million contracts in April 2012 decreased 6.9% versus the prior year, but increased 1.4% from March 2012 and increased 9.0% from first quarter 2012 levels. European cash trading ADV in April increased 22.8% versus the prior year, increased 14.8% from March 2012 levels and increased 17.8% from first quarter 2012 levels.
Source: NYSE Euronext
MIK White Paper On Portfolio Management And Data - Using Every Bit To Byte: Leveraging Data To Generate Alpha
May 7, 2012--Today MIK issued a white paper on portfolio management and data.
Introduction
Regardless of economic, competitive, regulatory, or market conditions, traditional asset and hedge fund managers are now, and always have been, faced with one primary mission: generating alpha.
Even when firms pursue similar investment strategies, satisfying the multiple demands of investors and giving sustained ROI is the goal.
Historically, successful investment strategies have relied on information asymmetry and information advantage. And frequently portfolio managers have garnered as much information as possible in designing both long-term strategy in the investment thesis and short-term implementation in trading.
Source: Mondovisione
ETFS Precious Metals Weekly: 2012 Outlook Favours Palladium over Platinum as Autocatalyst Demand Hits 11-year High
May 7, 2012--Palladium fabrication demand at 11-year high, but overshadowed by recycling and Russian supply. Precious metals consultants Thomson Reuters GFMS (GFMS) released their annual outlook for platinum group metals last week.
GFMS noted that fabrication demand was boosted by strong autocatalyst demand (both recording 11- year highs in 2011), additional supply more than offset the 2% lift in demand. Palladium is less exposed to the sluggish European market and is more linked to buoyant emerging market and US auto markets. However, autocatalyst recycling hit a record high in 2011, while Russia again defied expectations of an exhaustion in its state stockpiles to swing the market from deficit to surplus in 2011. GFMS expects a deficit in 2012. The risk factor, apart from another surprise from Russian state reserves, is a further decline in investor appetite akin to 2011.
Platinum surplus declines 12% in 2011, as fabrication demand hits 3-year high, according to Thomson Reuters GFMS. A strong lift in Chinese jewellery production and rising autocatalyst demand growth were behind the multi-year high in platinum demand in 2011. Exposure to the European diesel market and further substitution of platinum for palladium will likely be a restraint on further growth in this area in 2012. The seventh consecutive annual surplus, although smaller than 2010, was largely a product of supply growth in the order of 5% following increased mine supply in 2011. GFMS expects another surplus in 2012. Platinum supply disruptions remain a key risk and likely source of shortterm price support in 2012. Mine supply has been under pressure in 2012, with major platinum miners reporting declines in March quarter production, mainly due to the African labour disputes.
visit www.etfsecurities.com for more info
Source: ETF Securities
Fixed income traders face risk model change
May 7, 2012--Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, UBS and other European banks with big fixed income desks are likely to be hit hardest by the global proposal to change the way banks measure risk in their trading books, bankers and analysts said.
Under the “fundamental review” proposed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, banks around the world would have to rewrite their risk models for assets they plan to buy and sell to take into account rare but damaging events and market freezes. Banks would also face stricter rules on when items could be moved from the trading book to the banking book, where loans are held to maturity.
Source: FT.com
IMF Working paper-Commodity Price Shocks and Fiscal Outcomes
May 7, 2012--Summary: The experience of developing countries over 1990-2010 indicates that commodity prices have a significant impact on fiscal outcomes.
Both revenue and expenditure rise in response to commodity (import or export) price increases; the response of the fiscal deficit is ambiguous. A floating exchange rate regime only partially offsets the impact; foreign-exchange reserves do not dampen the effects. Hence, there is a strong case for fiscal hedging against commodity price shocks. Hedging instruments based on a limited set of benchmark world prices for a narrow set of commodities may suffice to realize most of the potential benefits.
view IMF Working paper-Commodity Price Shocks and Fiscal Outcomes
Source: IMF
U.S. Fact Sheet - Economic Track of the Fourth Meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED)
May 4, 2012--Through the Economic Track of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), we are expanding opportunities for Americans to export and sell to China by increasing market access and leveling the competitive playing field.
We are encouraging economic reforms, including financial sector opening, that would create a more rapidly growing Chinese market for U.S. goods and services by moving China toward more home-grown, consumption-led growth. We are strengthening cooperation on a range of international economic and financial issues, so that we are better able to work together on common global challenges.
The S&ED allows U.S. and Chinese officials at the highest levels to work together to address these and other important challenges through candid and constructive engagement. This week, Secretary Geithner led a U.S. delegation of senior economic officials, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Secretary of Commerce John Bryson, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and others, to Beijing for the fourth round of the S&ED, which included discussions with President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, and Vice Premier Wang Qishan, as well as Vice President Xi Jinping and Executive Vice Premier Li Keqiang, and other senior Chinese economic officials.
Source: US Department of the Treasury
NASDAQ OMX and the Egyptian Exchange Extend Technology Agreement
May 3, 2012--The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc (Nasdaq:NDAQ) and the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) have entered an agreement that extends their relationship for a further five years.
Under the terms of the agreement, NASDAQ OMX will continue to support the EGX trading platform, powered by NASDAQ OMX technology, which started operating in November of 2008.
Dr. Mohammed Omran, The Chairman of EGX and Professor of Finance at the Arab Academy for Science and Technology, said: "Our partnership with NASDAQ OMX goes back many years and as the Egyptian market continues to stabilize we look forward to leveraging the strong functionality and latency benefits of their technology. In times of unprecedented national economic turmoil, NASDAQ OMX consistently provided excellent support to ensure that our trading platform efficiently handled the extreme volatility, thus contributing to the recovery of our financial market."
Lars Ottersgard, Senior Vice President, NASDAQ OMX Market Technology, commented: "EGX's commitment to our trading technology is proof of their dedication to leverage best-of-breed technology in order to drive and grow its business. A well functioning stock market is a catalyst for efficient financial markets and with a world class trading system in place EGX can continue its plans to expand their offering and prominence in the region."
EGX's trading platform is based on NASDAQ OMX's proven X-stream technology which is deployed in 22 markets worldwide. X-stream is a multi-asset system that complies with international standards and is capable of handling equities, commodities, debt, ETFs, futures, options, swaps and derivatives on a single platform.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
Basel Seeks Tougher Boundary Between Banking, Trading Books
May 3, 2012--Banks face tougher rules on how they differentiate between assets they keep in their banking and trading books, making it harder to dodge capital rules, under proposals published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision today.
Lenders would have to give regulators evidence of buying and selling of securities in their trading books and face limits on their ability to shift assets between books under the plan. The risk of credit crunches would also need to be taken into account in calculations of how much cash they should keep in reserve against trading losses.
Source: Bloomberg
OECD annual inflation rate eases to 2.7% in March 2012
May 3, 2012--Consumer prices in the OECD area rose by 2.7% in the year to March 2012, compared with 2.8% in the year to February 2012.
This easing in the annual rate of inflation mainly reflected developments in energy and food where inflation slowed to 6.5% and 3.5% in the year to March, respectively, compared with 7.9% and 3.8% in the year to February. Excluding food and energy, the annual inflation rate was stable at 1.9% in March.
Source: OECD
