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China still knows what IMC did last summer

6 comments / August 26, 2016

imc financial marketsAlmost precisely one year ago the Chinese market nosedived on “black monday“. Dow Jones opened 1000 points lower. The Chinese regulators were uncomfortable with the concept of free markets. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) came up with a strange package of measures. The goal was to keep the markets from falling. Selling futures was ill-advised, trading volume dropped 99%.

IMC confirms investigation

All trading firms in Shanghai came under scrutiny. Dozens of traders, investors and journalists were arrested. Police raided offices of foreign trading firms. Everybody is scared of the unpredictable Chinese regulators. Nobody felt like giving public comments about the matter.

Until IMC confirmed to Bloomberg it is undergoing investigation by the Chinese authorities.

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Gigi Hodenius, aangenaam

Gigi Ravelli to marry Roger Hodenius

16 comments / August 19, 2016

Finally, some entertainment news. It was about time for some juicy gossip. After all those serious posts. This is a scoop : Roger Hodenius will marry celebrity Gigi Ravelli. Hodenius is the big man behind Flow Traders.

Loving Ibiza

The wedding will take place on Ibiza on September 24th. The place won’t come as a big surprise. The couple owns a villa on the island. A chartered airplane will fly-in the guests on Saturday.

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Flow Traders veterans launch rival

5 comments / August 10, 2016

Sjak & Rey BVFollowing the IPO of Flow Traders last year, quite a few people have left the company. The younger generation is chained with golden handcuffs to the firm.

The veteran staff, who were around when Roger Hodenius launched his firm, are free to go. They didn’t sign up for buying discounted shares at the IPO. They are already loaded with shares.

Two of the lucky early birds left Flow Traders to start a new venture. Not something completely different, but exactly the same. Building a liquidity provider in the ETF business.

Loaded Flow Veterans start rival

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Smoking gun : manipulation in TOM option market

44 comments / July 11, 2016

AFM, kom er maar inA lot of words were used to describe the manipulation in the option market on TOM. This market structure issue is a piece-of-cake for insiders. However, normal people can find it hard to grasp. Luckily, we have more colour. The manipulation continued on Monday morning. It was easy to detect.

In short, the kid manipulated the option quote on Euronext. And he traded against this skewed quote on TOM.  Market makers have committed themselves to have prices at least as good as on Euronext.

Bloomberg screenshots

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TOM has been gamed

21 comments / July 8, 2016

The option exchange TOM has been gamed by a trader. The case came the light last week, after a string of suspicious trades in AEX index options. The exchange hasn’t lost any money on the (alleged) manipulation. The burden was for the market makers. This case of alleged cross-venue manipulation is a bit of a complicated story for outsiders, I’m afraid.

Basic background

On the multilateral trading facility TOM (“The Order Machine“), options are listed on Dutch stocks and the AEX index. The same options are also trading on Euronext. In other words, there are usually two markets for the same option at the same time. A third option exchange, Eurex, doesn’t play a role in this story.

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