MarketVoice News
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Insight: Oil Prices: A Study in Hedging Against Unpredictable Prices
Watching oil prices crash below $30 a barrel is a sobering lesson in the limits of our ability to predict the future. I was at the helm of the CFTC in 2008 when the price of oil topped $145 a barrel. At the time, certain members of the “Peak Oil” crowd were predicting $200 per barrel by that year’s end. As recently as last year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast that Brent crude oil prices would average $58 per barrel in 2015 and $75 per barrel in 2016. EIA is now predicting Brent prices will average $38 per barrel in 2016, almost 50% lower than last year’s forecast.
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CCP Equivalency
After years of discussion, the European Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in February ironed out their differences on the regulation of clearinghouses in the U.S. and Europe.
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Blockchain experimentation
A year ago, the blockchain was a mysterious technology that somehow powered the equally mysterious Bitcoin. But people in financial services learn quickly when there’s money on the line.
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U.S. Treasury to Monitor Financial Stability of Clearinghouses
The Treasury Department's Office of Financial Research said in its annual report released on Jan. 27 that it will monitor the financial stability of clearinghouses.
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End-User Relief
The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight issued a no-action letter on Feb. 18 that provides end-users with relief from a reporting requirement that applies to trade options that have not been reported to a swap data repository.
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Power Move
The European Energy Exchange, a unit of Deutsche Boerse, has expanded eastward.
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CBOE Buys Stake in Robo-Advisor
CBOE Holdings announced in January that it has bought more than 50% of Vest Financial, a company founded in 2012 that aims to provide investors with a simple way to use options on individual equities and exchange-traded funds as protection against market downturns.
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Cross-Border Oversight
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 10 adopted rules setting out how the agency will determine whether or not a non-U.S. security-based swap dealer must register with the agency.
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CCP Recognition
LCH.Clearnet announced it has received formal clearinghouse status from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
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SEG Funds
On Jan. 22 NFA updated its regulations regarding customer protection requirements for futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisors.
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