Exchange Invest Weekend Edition 2664: Solid Gold Talk
Pure gold AU commencement address, EI marks T+10 years, Star Wars art deficiency, Aral Sea Insta void, self-driving investments & more.
Exchange Invest is a unique information resource combining the day’s stories in a newsletter for investors in exchanges/financial markets infrastructure.
Exchange Invest was founded by former exchange CEO and author of the first bestselling book of fintech (“Capital Market Revolution!” FT 1999) Patrick L Young. Monday through Friday our daily paid subscriber email discusses the business of bourses of all kinds across the world.
This weekly edition is a magazine of broader macro topics as well as including our free weekly podcast which reviews the highlights of the week in the world’s market structure.
On this day in 2013, Exchange Invest reported that CME Group Chairman Terry Duffy had said the exchange operator planned further cuts to a 30-member board that is twice as large as its closest U.S. rivals, prompting the pith…
“PLY: 30 is large for a kindergarten class. Many Chairmen reckon maintaining order in that kindergarten class may be easier than a similarly large exchange board.”
Update: CME board 10 years on, 23 people. Average S&P500 board size has expanded to 11.2.
Celebrating Ten Years
A landmark week for Exchange Invest as last Monday, May 15th marked the first official edition of EI, following a series of beta tests sent to a very modest but expanding user group.
“A decade later and we’re celebrating the first full decade of our unique exchange resource. Thank you to all our sponsors, subscribers and supporters across the parish of marketplaces. We remain The Exchange of Information and are hugely optimistic about the prospects for exchanges for the next decade and beyond…”
IN BIGWORLD
From Exchange Invest 2660: May 16th, Tuesday:
A massive geopolitical shift away from Russia to China has clearly been exacerbated by Mad Vlad’s ill-fated plunge into Ukraine where the invasion has proven a disaster all round… to the point where it seems even raiding the pawn shops of downtown Moscow couldn’t result in more than a single WW2 era T34 tank for the Russian “Victory Day” parade which nominally celebrates the 1945 victory over the Nazis but is symbolic for much else besides.
Anyway, beyond the pure war humiliation and Vlad’s uneasy look as President Xi visited Moscow and essentially held the upper hand recently, right in a key vestige of the Russian 20th century legacy, power has shifted.
Chinese grandmaster, Ding Liren has defeated his slightly older Russian opponent, Ian Nepomniachtchi, to become world chess champion. (Norwegian Magnus Carlsson did not defend his title). Thus another Russian speciality has been usurped by China where the whole notion was championed by Liu Wenzhe, who had been influenced by fraternal visits from Soviet grandmasters in the 1960s. In 2000 AD Liu (who died in 2011) had written: “The contest between the Chinese School and the Soviet School (better call it the Russian School now) is just beginning. It will last a long time, at least 20–50 years.”
At the time many thought his prophecy seemed absurd when he continued: “Chinese players [will] surpass the Russians … this is the necessary logic of chess history.”
IPO-VID LIVESTREAM
NEXT WEEK TUESDAY
Season 18: Episode 05: IPO-VID Livestream 107
Guests: Paul Constantinou & Patrick Kenny
Tuesday, May 23rd: 1800 UK, 1900 CET, 1400 EST
“AFM 25 Years On”
Join the President and Chairman of AFM as they review the history of the emerging exchange markets association AFM and look to the future of exchanges and the association.
AFM President Paul Constantinou is best known in the exchange business for his years selling trading systems to exchanges, particularly in the energy and commodities space with Trayport and other vendors.
AFM Chairman Patrick J. Kenny is Senior Vice President of client relations for CQG. His responsibilities include business development and working with account management. He joined the firm in July 2010.
Previously, Kenny had been with Patsystems, North America as an Officer and Managing Director for 10 years. Patrick has worked in the financial trading sector for more than 42 years years. Spent 20 years at the CBOT on the Floor trading. Board Member of FIA Tech Division, Board Member of The Small Exchange, Chairman Of AFM and President of Fontana on Geneva Lake in Fontana Wisconsin. Sometimes referred to as The Most Interesting Man in the Futures world, mostly by John Lothian.
Watch the stream on:
NOW ONLINE!
Season 18: Episode 04: IPO-VID Livestream 106
Guest: Jeffrey Carter
Tuesday, May 16th: 1800 UK, 1900 CET, 1400 EST
“From the Merc Floor To Angel Funding”
Jeff Carter notes his key strengths include being Innovative, Strategic, Transparent, & knowing how to get the edge. He took the ethic from the trading floor of “My word is my bond” and brought it into practice with early-stage investing.
Jeff is a partner at early stage VC WestLoopVentures.com, an early stage VC fund that invests in B2B Fin Tech companies & was the driving force behind HydeParkAngels.com, the most active angel network in the Midwest.
An independent trader at CME for over 2 decades he was a member of the CME Board of Directors while remaking the member mutual into a for profit, public company as an active member of the Strategic Planning Committee who chaired or co-chaired several committees.
Watch the stream on:
IPO-VID LIVESTREAM PODCAST
In IPO-VID Episode 098: Patrick L Young was joined by ICE Futures US President, Jennifer Ilkiw. In this must listen episode, Jennifer discussed “ICE: Cresting the Derivatives Wave.”
Now available from multiple different podcast sources including:
EI WEEKLY PODCAST
Shock New Chinese Regulator
As we celebrate a wonderful Hong Kong Double
While LSEG can’t sell you the tech for an exchange, they can open another Centre of Excellence for, er, Technology and best of all we have a golden commencement speech as Exchange Invest celebrates its 10th birthday.
The Exchange Invest Weekly Podcast 194
AFM 25th Annual Conference
Returning to Budapest, the AFM Annual Conference is back! 25 years of celebrating the derivatives industry and the futures market. See you on June 6th-7th as I will be giving a keynote presentation: AFM 25 Years On, Emerging Markets 25 Years Forward.
VICTORY OR DEATH
20 years on from the first fintech bestseller “Capital Market Revolution!”… “Victory Or Death” is a must read book for anyone interested in the intersection of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and FinTech as part of the whole future of finance.
PODCAST THIS WEEK
American University’s 2023 Spring Commencement
YouTube
PLY: While we were brainstorming ‘thing to do to celebrate 10 years of Exchange Invest’ one thought was a big league speech endorsing markets… While we were considering it, Adena stepped on stage at the weekend to accept an honorary doctorate and gave the American University Business School Graduation commencement address with a panache which is a brilliant endorsement of the finest talents across our parish.
Adena’s AU speech is pure gold.
In emphasising trust, Adena stays true to our market base and promotes a new tone to promote “a stronger foundation — one that supports collaboration, and inclusion, and most importantly, rebuilds trust.” That works for the world right now using components that all coalesce to make markets work.
In encouraging the graduates to make three key decisions:
- Choose curiosity over judgement
- Choose relationships over transactions
- Choose abundance over scarcity
…In other words, a splendid, positive manifesto for good at a time when, as Adena notes, we are too prone to talking past each other…
Her speech continues: “People like to say that life is short, but I disagree. Our lives and our careers are long and winding, exhilarating and sometimes terrifying. You will face endless choices. Some will be big, some small. Sometimes it won’t be clear which are which until much later. Our lives are the sum of these choices. Of how we choose to show up for ourselves, for the people we care about, and for the world.
What I’ve found is this: When you choose curiosity…when you choose relationships…when you choose abundance… what you’re really choosing is optimism. And when you choose optimism, just about anything becomes possible.
Optimism is at the root of resilience. And if we let optimism guide our decisions again and again, we create that essential element of trust — the unshaking belief that whatever happens today, there’s a positive path forward. We just have to find it. Optimism is a virtuous cycle. Fear is a vicious cycle. The choice of which cycle to create is ours.”
Bring it on! This speech amounts to a beautiful synopsis of why we wake up in the morning to bring you Exchange Invest and advocate for the exchange business — which remains the key business model of the digital network era — and indeed why we optimists of the exchange business wake up to build and operate the markets of the future.
Thanks for the inspiration, Dr Friedman, a mot juste speech.
UpEnergy Cofounders Matt Evans And Alex Rau Fight Energy Poverty With Carbon Markets
Inside The ICE House
UpEnergy Group Cofounders Alex Rau and Matt Evans explain how UpEnergy is using ICE’s carbon markets to drive the energy transition, save lives, and reduce energy poverty. As they explain, the auction carbon credits based on UpEnergy’s Improved Cookstove Program in Uganda is just one of the innovative ways to bring the power of the global capital markets to bear on the challenges faced by climate change. Since its founding in 2011, UpEnergy has built 16 projects that leverage climate finance to fight energy poverty and, as we hear from Matt and Alex, they’re just getting started.
Finance Book Of The Week
In response to reader’s queries, we’re adding a book column to the weekend edition — We’ll be choosing some interesting books pertaining to exchanges and markets, investment et al going forward. Firsts here’s one from a very recent IPO-VID guest:
Our IPO-VID guest 105 Philip Roscoe creates a cautionary tale about the drive of financial markets towards expropriation, capture and exclusion. A must read book from University of St Andrews Reader in Management, Philip Roscoe, even if it’s much more about socioeconomics than anything remotely like a build manual for a marketplace (if you need one of those DM me…).
Get the book here.
Suggestions are welcome if you would like to nominate a book for us to cover!
BITCARNAGE
No sooner had a raft of US crypto entities settled on a new home overseas than the foreigners started playing up. True the EU passed MICA but as hardened pros will know the legislation which exits the Brussels blob may or may not be proximate to the actual regulations each national supervisory body enacts. Devil — details, go right ahead and construct a sentence…
Meanwhile, in the UK, the UK Parliament’s Treasury Committee issued a crypto statement suggesting Consumer Cryptocurrency Trading Should Be Regulated As Gambling (Parliament UK). The report goes on to say: “Unbacked cryptoassets have no intrinsic value, and their price volatility exposes consumers to the potential for substantial gains or losses while serving no useful social purpose. These characteristics more closely resemble gambling than a financial service, an impression reinforced by the evidence we have received of consumer behaviour.”
Needless to say, this has caused a fit of the vapors in the crypto community. Presumably, the Thames is littered with not merely toys but probably prams themselves today. “CryptoUK strongly disagrees with the Treasury Committee’s conclusion, and we are both concerned and disappointed by these claims which are unhelpful, false, fundamentally flawed and unsubstantiated. The statement fails to reflect the true nature, purpose and potential of the crypto industry.”
There is a huge risk here of course for the future. However in the here and now, — the UK Parliament assessed what is in front of it right now and decided — wisely — that empty bits/bytes moving between acolytes is gambling. On that one, they are indubitably correct and those who disagree are frankly encased within their own lived experience folly. When you analyse cryptocurrency V1.0… it’s really tough to disagree that in the here and now, the idea that code on a blockchain such as Bitcoin is just a token and not something with an underlying value.
The potential is elsewhere… The problem is that from what I see, the “true nature” of crypto has to date mostly been a deranged brotopia with vast amounts of crookery and a moral relativism where the morality itself has been broadly absented from a myopic, entitled worldview.
…Everyday we cover the ongoing turmoil of BTC, crypto et al in our daily “Bitcarnage” section of Exchange Invest. For more details on a free trial to our premium newsletter of the bourse business delivered to your Inbox daily, you can sign up on our new beta website ExchangeInvest.com.
Alternatively, if you want to follow Bitcarnage — the daily update on happenings in the world of crypto and digital assets, alone, then you can find Bitcarnage as a standalone on Substack.
MACRO THOUGHTS
200 Years Of Global Gold Production, By Country
Visual Capitalist
OF INTERESTS
As always, a review of interesting reading to provoke thoughts and consideration… Not sure we agree with much of it….but it’s thought-provoking!
Why Are There No Paintings In Star Wars?
The Spectator World
PLY: A fascinating observation…
‘Disney Dad’ Pastor Christopher Burns Is Now FBI’s Most Wanted
The Daily Beast
Under the guise of a “peer-to-peer” lending program with high-interest promissory notes, Burns allegedly used the money to fund his lavish lifestyle.
‘Most Staggering Disaster Of The 20th Century’ Now Offers Instagrammable Photo Ops For Curious Aral Sea Tourists
South China Morning Post
A Pure-Play Way To Bet On The Future Of Self-Driving Cars
Nasdaq
Will America Win From De-Dollarisation?
Unherd
LAST WORD
…If you want to stay abreast of the world of exchanges then please Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter — free 30 day trial.
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You can also check out the “Reflections From Young’s Pyramid”, it illustrates the relative value of exchanges around the world.
Or the “ICE Cost of Borrowing 2020–2022” An Interest Rate Comparison, which illustrates the end of the funny money era of QE and how interest rates have already had a major lurch up from their previous region of zero to, even negative, levels.
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Catch up on Monday for Exchange Invest 2665…
The future continues in the water cooler of the bourse business…
- Patrick
