The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today filed an Order instituting proceedings and settling charges against Respondents Cypress Wealth Management, Inc. (Cypress), and its former owners and operators, Ted L. Romeo of Pompano Beach, Florida, and Richard D. Schrutt of Tampa, Florida. The CFTC Order charged Respondents with illegally offering off-exchange financed transactions in precious metals to retail customers and failing to register with the CFTC as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), as required.
read more...CFTC Orders Florida Residents Ted L. Romeo, Richard D. Schrutt, And Their Company Cypress Wealth Management Group, Inc. To Pay Restitution And Civil Monetary Penalties Totaling More Than $530,000 In Precious Metals Enforcement Action - Order Also Permanently Bars Respondents From Trading On CFTC-Regulated Markets
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SIFMA Hosts Social Impact Investment Roundtable On Capitol Hill, Bringing Together Industry Experts And Lawmakers
Today, SIFMA hosted a roundtable on Social Impact Investing with industry experts and Members of Congress. The event fueled a discussion between the financial services industry and Members of Congress, on the role of America's capital markets in creating and funding programs designed to improve local communities. The event was held on Capitol Hill and participants included Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., president and CEO of SIFMA, as well as Representatives Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), John Delaney (D-MD), Tom Reed (R-NY) and Jared Polis (D-CO). Industry participants included Audrey Choi, CEO, Institute for Sustainable Investing, Morgan Stanley; Stephen Freedman, Head of Thematic and Sustainable Investing Strategy US, UBS; and Navjeet Bal, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Social Finance.
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Can an interdisciplinary field contribute to one of the parent disciplines from which it emerged?. (arXiv:1605.08354v1 [physics.soc-ph])
In the light of contemporary discussions of inter and transdisciplinarity, this paper approaches econophysics and sociophysics to seek a response to the question -- whether these interdisciplinary fields could contribute to physics and economics. Drawing upon the literature on history and philosophy of science, the paper argues that the two way traffic between physics and economics has a long history and this is likely to continue in the future.
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The race for boats. (arXiv:1605.08166v1 [q-fin.EC])
The long term coexistence of fisheries exploiting the same marine resource depends crucially on how the competition between them is organised. Traditionally, fisheries policies that mediate competition assume that fisheries maximise profit or yield and are engaged in a race to fish. But economic anthropology of fisheries casts doubts onto profit maximizing behaviour, and suggests that capacity maximization and a race for boats may be occurring. Financialization also encourages fishing entities to increase their capacity. Using a simple model, we study the effects of capacity maximization on fisheries economics taking into account technical and financial constraints faced by fishing entities. We show that when competing entities face the same constraints, competition for the exploitation capacity of a natural resource comes down to the sharing of a pie and that the size of this pie is determined by technical efficiency and rates of return. When entities face different constraints, competition for capacity leads to the survival of only the least constrained fishing entity. Our results support the idea that together, globalization, financialization, substitution of local credit systems by general banks, and policies that encourage competitiveness, will result in highly capitalized fleets and the fossilization of small scales fisheries. To prevent this, fishing policies should go against their past tendency to increase competition, support technological progress and anticipate financial changes. Rather, fishing policies should reinforce local financial cooperation between operators of the fishing sector and control fishing efficiency at a "reasonable" level.
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Contracting theory with competitive interacting agents. (arXiv:1605.08099v1 [q-fin.EC])
In a framework close to the one developed by Holmstr\"om and Milgrom [44], we study the optimal contracting scheme between a Principal and several Agents. Each hired Agent is in charge of one project, and can make efforts towards managing his own project, as well as impact (positively or negatively) the projects of the other Agents. Considering economic Agents in competition with relative performance concerns, we derive the optimal contracts in both first best and moral hazard settings. The enhanced resolution methodology relies heavily on the connection between Nash equilibria and multidimensional quadratic BSDEs. The optimal contracts are linear and each agent is paid a fixed proportion of the terminal value of all the projects of the firm. Besides, each Agent receives his reservation utility, and those with high competitive appetence are assigned less volatile projects, and shall even receive help from the other Agents. From the principal point of view, it is in the firm interest in our model to strongly diversify the competitive appetence of the Agents.
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Working Hours Of The Amman Stock Exchange And Trading Hours During The Holy Month Of Ramadan
On the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan, the ASE has decided to change the official working and trading hours during the holy month of Ramadan, the working hours will be from 09:30 to 15:30, as for trading hours it will be as follows:
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Re-Appointments To The MAS Board Of Directors
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the re-appointment of four members of the MAS Board of Directors, with effect from 1 June 2016.
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SGX Launches SGX Sustainability Indices
Singapore Exchange (SGX) today announced the launch of SGX Sustainability Indices, another suite of equity indices composed of SGX-listed stocks introduced by SGX Index Edge. SGX’s partner, Sustainalytics, provided the environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings for SGX-listed companies, and the ratings underpin the Indices.
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Moscow Exchange: FX Market Risk Parameters Change
NCC Clearing Bank is changing risk parameters starting from 31 may 2016 according to the tables below.
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IMD Releases Its 2016 World Competitiveness Ranking - The USA Toppled As Worldâs Most Competitive Economy
The USA has surrendered its status as the world’s most competitive economy after being overtaken by China Hong Kong and Switzerland, according to the IMD World Competitiveness Center.
The sheer power of the economy of the USA is no longer sufficient to keep it at the top of the prestigious World Competitiveness Ranking, which it has led for the past three years.
The IMD World Competitiveness Center, a research group within IMD business school, has published the ranking each year since 1989 and it is widely regarded as the foremost annual assessment of the competitiveness of countries.
The 2016 edition ranks China Hong Kong first, Switzerland second and the USA third, withSingapore, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada completing the top 10.
Professor Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, said a consistent commitment to a favourable business environment was central to China Hong Kong’s rise and that Switzerland’s small size and its emphasis on a commitment to quality have allowed it to react quickly to keep its economy on top.
“The USA still boasts the best economic performance in the world, but there are many other factors that we take into account when assessing competitiveness,” he said.
“The common pattern among all of the countries in the top 20 is their focus on business-friendly regulation, physical and intangible infrastructure and inclusive institutions.”
A leading banking and financial center, China Hong Kong encourages innovation through low and simple taxation and imposes no restrictions on capital flows into or out of the territory.
It also offers a gateway for foreign direct investment in China Mainland, the world’s newest economic superpower, and enables businesses there to access global capital markets.
China Hong Kong and Singapore aside, however, the research suggests Asia’s competitiveness has declined markedly overall since the publication of last year’s ranking.
Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea Republic, and Indonesia have all suffered significant falls from their 2015 positions, while China Mainland declined only narrowly retaining its place in the top 25.
The study reveals some of the most impressive strides in Europe have been made by countries in the East, chief among them Latvia, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.
Western European economies have also continued to improve, with researchers highlighting the ongoing post-financial-crisis recovery of the public sector as a key driver.
Meanwhile, 36th-placed Chile is the sole Latin American nation outside the bottom 20, whileArgentina, in 55th, is the only country in the region to have improved on its 2015 position.
Each ranking is based on analysis of over 340 criteria derived from four principal factors: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.
Responses from an in-depth survey of more than 5,400 business executives, who are asked to assess the situation in their own countries, are also taken into consideration.
Professor Bris said: “One important fact that the ranking makes clear year after year is that current economic growth is by no means a guarantee of future competitiveness.
“Nations as different as China Mainland and Qatar fare very well in terms of economic performance, but they remain weak in other pillars such as government efficiency and infrastructure.”
Data gathered since the first ranking was published more than 25 years ago also lend weight to fears that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, said Professor Bris.
“Since 1995 the world has become increasingly unequal in terms of income differences among countries, although the rate of increase is now slowing,” he said.
“The wealth of the richest countries has grown every year except for the past two, while the poorer countries have seen some improvement in living conditions since the millennium.
“Unfortunately, the problem for many countries is that wealth accumulation by the rich doesn’t yield any benefits for the poor in the absence of proper social safety nets.
“Innovation-driven economic growth in poorer countries improves competitiveness, but it also increases inequality. This is obviously an issue that demands long-term attention.”
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Hong Kong Bucks Trend To Become World's Most Competitive Economy
The Pearl of the Orient, China Hong Kong, is living up to its nickname and has defied a pattern of decline among Asian economies to supplant the United States of America (USA) as the world's most economically competitive country, according to the latest ranking released by the IMD World Competitiveness Center.
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New Ranking Shows Eastern European Economies Closing Competitiveness Gaps
Eastern European nations are increasingly rivalling their more established Western counterparts in terms of economic competitiveness, a major new study from the IMD World Competitiveness Center has revealed.
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Alberta Securities Commission To Enact Its New Fee Rule
The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) announced today that it will adopt ASC Rule 13-501 Fees, pending Ministerial approval, which will replace the ASC’s current fee schedule.
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Teaching and Training for Global Engineering: Perspectives on Culture and Professional Communication Practices
 |  | Provides a foundation for understanding a range of linguistic, cultural, and technological factors to effectively practice international communication in a variety of professional communication arenas Read More... |
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The use of the multi--cumulant tensor analysis for the algorithmic search for safe investment portfolios. (arXiv:1605.09181v1 [q-fin.PM])
The cumulant analysis plays an important role in non Gaussian distributed data analysis. The shares' prices returns are good example of such data. The purpose of this research is to develop the cumulant based algorithm and use it to determine eigenvectors that represent "respectively safe" investment portfolios with low variability. Such algorithm is based on the Alternating Least Square method and involves the simultaneous minimisation 2'nd -- 6'th cumulants of the multidimensional random variable (percentage shares' returns of many companies). Then the algorithm was examined for daily shares' returns of companies traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. It was shown that the algorithm gives the investment portfolios that are on average better than portfolios achieved by other methods, as well as than the proposed benchmark. Remark that the algorithm of is based on cumulant tensors up to the 6'th order, what is the novel idea. It can be expected that the algorithm would be useful in the financial data analysis on the world wide scale as well as in the analysis of other types of non Gaussian distributed data.
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A Mean Field Game of Optimal Stopping. (arXiv:1605.09112v1 [math.OC])
We formulate a stochastic game of mean field type where the agents solve optimal stopping problems and interact through the proportion of players that have already stopped. Working with a continuum of agents, typical equilibria become functions of the common noise that all agents are exposed to, whereas idiosyncratic randomness can be eliminated by an Exact Law of Large Numbers. Under a structural monotonicity assumption, we can identify equilibria with solutions of a simple equation involving the distribution function of the idiosyncratic noise. Solvable examples allow us to gain insight into the uniqueness of equilibria and the dynamics in the population.
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What does past correlation structure tell us about the future? An answer from network filtering. (arXiv:1605.08908v1 [q-fin.PM])
We discovered that past changes in the market correlation structure are significantly related with future changes in the market volatility. By using correlation-based information filtering networks we device a new tool for forecasting the market volatility changes. In particular, we introduce a new measure, the "correlation structure persistence", that quantifies the rate of change of the market dependence structure. This measure shows a deep interplay with changes in volatility and we demonstrate it can anticipate market risk variations. Notably, our method overcomes the curse of dimensionality that limits the applicability of traditional econometric tools to portfolios made of a large number of assets. We report on forecasting performances and statistical significance of this tool for two different equity datasets. We also identify an optimal region of parameters in terms of True Positive and False Positive trade-off, through a ROC curve analysis. We find that our forecasting method is robust and it outperforms predictors based on past volatility only. Moreover the temporal analysis indicates that our method is able to adapt to abrupt changes in the market, such as financial crises, more rapidly than methods based on past volatility.
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Modelling Trading Networks and the Role of Trust. (arXiv:1605.08899v1 [physics.soc-ph])
We present a simple dynamical model for describing trading interactions between agents in a social network by considering only two dynamical variables, namely money and goods or services, that are assumed conserved over the whole time span of the agents' trading transactions. A key feature of the model is that agent-to-agent transactions are governed by the price in units of money per goods, which is dynamically changing, and by a trust variable, which is related to the trading history of each agent. All agents are able to sell or buy, and the decision to do either has to do with the level of trust the buyer has in the seller, the price of the goods and the amount of money and goods at the disposal of the buyer. Here we show the results of extensive numerical calculations under various initial conditions in a random network of agents and compare the results with the available related data. In most cases the agreement between the model results and real data turns out to be fairly good, which allow us to draw some general conclusions as how different trading strategies could affect the distribution of wealth in different kinds of societies.
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Shenzhen Stock Exchange Market Bulletin 30 May, 2016, Issue18
Fang Xinghai, the vice chairman of the CSRC, said on 25 May that China will gradually open up commodity futures markets, starting from internationally-traded products such as crude oil, iron ore, and rubber. China will also encourage its domestic financial institutions to trade in a wider range of commodities, as commercial banks are currently only allowed to trade in gold and silver futures, prompting many to pursue futures transactions overseas. In the meanwhile, regulators will strengthen supervision to clamp down on speculation and potentially illegal activity from foreign investors. In addition, China will pursue more bilateral and multilateral agreements with international exchanges to improve governance of international futures markets.
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ASIC Releases Its Third Licensing Activity Report
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