Derivs - FX

Société Générale has finalised the acquisition of Newedge, buying out Credit Agricole’s 50% stake and bringing SG's ownership to 100%. SG has also sold 5% of the capital of Amundi to Credit Agricole as part of the deal, bringing SG’s stake in Amundi down to 20%.

Vishnu Kurella, a portfolio manager focused on volatility trading at BlueMountain Capital Management in New York, has left the firm to join Caxton Associates in a similar role, also in New York.

Speed has always been a defining feature of the trading process, especially across the very liquid equities and fx markets. Moving from the open cry through to the information age and high-speed computing, the quicker an order could be placed and the faster information could be gathered, the more competitive advantage a firm could gain over its rivals. As the new millennium kicked off, vast sums were being bought and sold in milliseconds, and an interminable arms race seemed to have become an industry staple, with trading firms racing towards zero latency.

China Credit BGC Money Broking Company, a joint venture between BGC Partners and China Credit Trust, has been given a license to broker fx options to the interbank market by the country’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Weekly options expirations in Q1 2014 grew 56% over Q1 2013, with 248 million contracts traded. The increase was part of a wider rise in listed US options trading volume, which saw the market grow 10% in Q1 2014, according to a TABB Group report released Tuesday.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange saw record Volatility Index options and futures trading volumes this quarter, helping the bourse raise its overall operating revenue 11% to $157.9 million.

Private banks are facing operational issues posting segregation margin to clearinghouses due to different CCP margin rules. While tier 1 banks have moved towards automated systems, other clearing members, such as private banks, are still heavily reliant on manual processes.

TriOptima has completed the first cross-currency compression cycle, eliminating ¥12.318 trillion ($120 billion) notional principal in Japanese yen/US dollar swaps.

Mirae Asset Group listed last week on the Korea Exchange two synthetic exchange-traded funds in South Korea, making it the most prolific issuer in the market.

Trading on CME Clearing Europe’s nascent London-based derivative exchange this week saw 81 fx contracts and 30 biofuel contracts traded through Thursday. The exchange started business on April 27 with 12 members, but a further 20 members are expected to link to the clearinghouse in the coming weeks, with higher volumes expected from mid-month.

South Korean authorities are looking at two different ways a derivatives capital gains tax could be implemented; either an annual rate of 10% on capital gains earned in excess of KRW2.5 million, or an annual rate of 20% on total earnings from gold trading and financial investment products, including derivatives.

Hedge funds are not net-shorting their Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index futures positions and have started recently to hedge against a potential correction via S&P 500 puts, put spreads on emerging markets and best of puts on global indices.