The Case for Compute Markets—And Against a Compute Dollar
The article argues that while AI has turned compute into a critical, volatile input, early market mechanisms like cloud spot pricing hint at a nascent compute market. It outlines how futures contracts could let firms hedge GPU‑hour costs, but stresses the lack of fungibility and rapid tech change hinder standardization. The piece also dismisses the notion of a “compute dollar” as a monetary unit, citing storage, stability, and acceptance issues. Nonetheless, more structured compute‑related financial products are expected as AI spending grows.
Gresham and FundGuard Partner on Total Portfolio Data Solution
Gresham, a leader in enterprise data management, has teamed up with FundGuard, an AI‑enabled cloud‑native investment accounting platform. The partnership merges FundGuard’s multi‑book accounting engine with Gresham’s data‑governance tools, giving institutional investors a single, auditable source of real‑time data across...
Bloomberg Introduces Point-in-Time Economic Data
Bloomberg launched its Economic Releases and Surveys Point‑in‑Time (PiT) dataset, adding more than 3,000 curated macro indicators and auction events from over 100 economies, with timestamps dating back to 1997. The PiT data shows information exactly as it appeared to...
MarketAxess, Moment to Provide Retail Access to Institutional Fixed-Income Liquidity
MarketAxess Holdings and Moment announced a new interface that lets large wealth managers and registered investment advisors tap MarketAxess’s institutional fixed‑income liquidity directly from the Moment platform. The integration connects Moment’s AI‑driven order flow with MarketAxess’s network of more than...
Charles Schwab Unveils AI Tool for Portfolio Insights
Charles Schwab introduced its first generative AI tool for retail investors, delivering personalized portfolio performance insights and market context. The feature highlights up to five holdings with the biggest daily moves and aggregates relevant S&P 500 news and Schwab research commentary....
Fixing Failures to Communicate
At the May 5, 2026 Options Industry Conference, SEC Division of Trading and Markets Director Jamie Selway highlighted the explosive growth of U.S. options markets and announced recent regulatory updates. The SEC approved FINRA’s rescission of the Pattern Day Trading rule on...
LTSE Petition on Quarterly Reporting Reform Advances to SEC Proposal Stage
The SEC announced a proposal to make quarterly earnings reports voluntary, allowing public companies to file semiannually if they choose. The rule follows a September 2025 petition by the Long‑Term Stock Exchange, which argues that less frequent reporting would curb...
Eventus Appoints Cameron Routh As CEO
Eventus, a global trade‑surveillance software provider, announced the appointment of Cameron Routh as its new chief executive officer, succeeding founder Travis Schwab. The transition is backed by Terminus Capital Partners, the private‑equity firm that recently invested in Eventus. Routh arrives...
Digital Asset Infrastructure Reaches Turning Point
Institutions are moving beyond curiosity about digital assets toward building the infrastructure needed to trade them alongside traditional securities. Northern Trust’s Global Head of Strategic Partnerships, Justin Chapman, highlighted digital cash rails as the primary driver of momentum, enabling 24/7...
OIC 2026 to Focus on Market Structure, Retail and Trading Hours
The Options Industry Conference returns May 5‑7 in Palm Beach Gardens, centering on the convergence of market structure, technology, and retail participation in the listed options market. Sessions will explore short‑dated options growth, expanded expirations, data‑driven trading, and the overlap...
Fed’s Bowman Calls for Adaptive Oversight on AI Adoption
Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman warned that AI’s rapid evolution is reshaping cybersecurity and risk management across banks, creating both operational gains and supervisory challenges. She highlighted tools like Anthropic’s Mythos model that can identify vulnerabilities but...
Clear Street, Kalshi Partner on Institutional Access to Prediction Markets
Clear Street announced a strategic partnership with Kalshi, becoming the first institutional Futures Commission Merchant to join Kalshi’s regulated exchange and clearing house. The collaboration gives Clear Street’s institutional clients 24/7 access to Kalshi’s event‑based contracts, along with regulated clearing,...
The Plumbing Problem Behind Tokenized Finance
Tokenized Treasury and other securities are moving from pilot projects to production, driven by clear U.S. and European regulations and massive daily volumes on platforms like Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo. Firms must now manage identical economic exposures on both traditional...
FLASH FRIDAY: 1982: ET, Thriller, and Options Trading
The Options Industry Conference (OIC) returns next week in Palm Beach Gardens, marking the 44th gathering since its 1982 debut. In that inaugural year, options trading surged to 137 million contracts, a 26% increase that mirrors the 26% jump seen in...
SEC Debuts ‘Material Matters’ Podcast
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a new podcast, Material Matters, to give investors and market participants a behind‑the‑scenes look at its policy agenda. In the debut episode, Chairman Paul Atkins sat down with Commissioners Mark Uyeda and Hester Peirce to discuss...
Ontario Securities Commission Proposes Amendments To Fee Rules
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has released proposed amendments to its fee rules, the first comprehensive overhaul in more than a decade. The changes aim to lower participation fees for small issuers—about 57% would pay $750 or less annually—and cut...
Crossover Markets Hires Jay Patel as Global Head of Markets
Digital‑asset ECN Crossover Markets has appointed Jay Patel as Global Head of Markets, based in New York. Patel, who spent nearly 14 years at Euronext FX in senior product and liquidity roles, will oversee liquidity analytics and client experience for the...
ION Launches XTP for Event Contracts
ION Group has launched XTP for Event Contracts, an automated real‑time platform that creates, resolves and settles event‑based derivatives around the clock. The solution, already trusted by major futures commission merchants for exchange‑traded and cleared OTC products, now supports prediction‑market...
The SEC’s FY 2025 Enforcement Report Signals Fundamental Shift in Goals and Strategy
The SEC’s FY 2025 Enforcement Report marks a decisive move away from headline‑driven actions toward a disciplined, investor‑protection model. Two‑thirds of the year’s cases targeted individuals, a 27% rise year‑over‑year, and the agency barred 119 people from officer or director roles...
Bullish Integrates Options Trading with Ripple Prime
Bullish (NYSE:BLSH) is expanding its partnership with Ripple by offering regulated Bitcoin options on Ripple Prime, the crypto‑focused prime‑brokerage platform. The BTC options market is the second‑largest by open interest for crypto‑settled contracts, and can be settled with Ripple USD stablecoins. Institutional...
DERIVSOURCE: Global Exchanges Jostle for Position in ‘Perps’
Global exchanges are racing to launch perpetual crypto futures as the CFTC prepares new regulatory reforms. Kraken's parent Payward bought derivatives platform Bitnomial for $150 million, while Coinbase introduced long‑dated futures and Robinhood is weighing a US offering. Perpetual contracts, which...
Report Finds AI Integration Gap and Risks in Financial Services
A new Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance report finds that over 80% of financial‑services firms have deployed AI, but most use it for back‑office efficiency rather than business‑model transformation. The study highlights a significant cyber‑risk gap, with 48% of respondents...
SIFMA Submission to House Financial Services Committee on Capital Proposals
SIFMA submitted a letter to the House Financial Services Committee urging refinements to the 2026 U.S. bank capital proposals. The association praised recent improvements over 2023 drafts but warned that overly conservative requirements could curb liquidity, raise costs, and stifle...
Kaiko Aims to Enable New Generation of Onchain Products
Kaiko, the Paris‑based crypto data provider, announced its membership in ISDA and highlighted its role in tokenizing the iBoxx U.S. Treasuries Index with S&P Dow Jones. The tokenized benchmark delivers programmable, permissioned data, licensing and fee management on blockchain, paving...
Cboe to Offer Expanded Trading Hours for Select Equity Options
Cboe Global Markets will launch expanded trading hours on its Cboe Options Exchange for select equity options starting July 13, 2026, pending regulatory approval. The new schedule adds a pre‑market Global Trading Hours session and an afternoon Curb session, targeting...
Investors Look Beyond Returns to Evaluate Fund Managers
Institutional investors are expanding their evaluation criteria beyond pure returns, emphasizing stable investment teams, transparent communication, and firm culture, according to Cerulli research. Seventy‑two percent of respondents rank performance consistency and team stability as the most critical attributes, while 61%...
Mosaic Platforms Delivers a MERIT Driven Market in US Equities
Mosaic Platforms has launched Mosaic ATS, a FINRA‑registered alternative trading system that uses a proprietary MERIT (Market Execution Rating for Informed Trading) score to match investors with risk providers. The MERIT‑driven model evaluates order context and footprint risk, aiming to...
Northern Trust and Saphyre Expand Collaboration
Northern Trust announced an expanded, structured, rules‑based workflow platform for its Investment Operations Outsourcing (IOO) clients, covering the entire account lifecycle. The upgrade builds on its partnership with fintech Saphyre, which provides automation for complex middle‑office events. The new solution...
FLASH FRIDAY: PDT Rule Overhaul Sparks Industry Debate
The SEC has approved FINRA’s overhaul of the Pattern Day Trader rule, scrapping the long‑standing $25,000 equity minimum and replacing it with intraday margin standards that assess risk throughout the trading day. Webull and Interactive Brokers welcomed the change, saying...
BMLL Partners with SpiderRock to Expand Cross-Asset Market Analytics
BMLL announced that SpiderRock’s US equity options print set data is now available through its BMLL Data Lab. The integration lets clients merge SpiderRock’s trade‑level options analytics with BMLL’s granular historical equity, futures and options data, creating a unified cross‑asset...
Fragmented Liquidity Raises Pressure on Buy-Side Trading Desks
Portfolio managers are using leverage and extension strategies to boost returns, which inflates gross exposure without increasing assets under management. This heightened exposure magnifies transaction costs, especially on the short side where short‑sale restrictions and limited borrow availability create hidden...
Institutional Investors Rapidly Expand Use of ETFs
Cerulli Associates and Invesco report that North American institutional investors have nearly doubled their ETF holdings over the past five years, reaching roughly $337 billion in 2025. The asset class grew at a 14.4% compound annual growth rate, far outpacing the...
SimCorp Introduces Agent Launchpad, Agentic AI Ecosystem for Investment Managers
SimCorp announced Agent Launchpad, an agentic AI ecosystem embedded in its SimCorp One platform, enabling investment managers to deploy pre‑built and custom AI agents across front‑to‑back workflows. The launch includes a partnership with Orbit, which contributes its AI‑driven research agent...
TMX Group Announces Agreement to Acquire Cboe Australia and Cboe Canada
TMX Group announced an agreement to acquire Cboe Australia and Cboe Canada from Cboe Global Markets for a total consideration of $300 million USD. The two businesses generated roughly $64 million USD in revenue and $18 million USD in adjusted EBITDA in 2025....
DERIVSOURCE: Derivatives Industry Cheers Fed’s Revised Capital Rules
The Federal Reserve released revised capital proposals that trim the Basel III and GSIB surcharge by roughly 4.8%, a sharp reduction from the 20% hike originally slated in 2023. The changes spare the six largest U.S. clearing banks—JPMorgan, Goldman, Morgan Stanley,...
Data-Sharing Concerns Slow Sell-Side Limit Automation
Security concerns over internal data sharing are hindering the automation of client limit management on sell‑side execution desks, according to Acuiti research head Ross Lancaster. The latest Acuiti Sell‑Side Execution Management Insight Report shows that only 46% of firms have...
Horizon Trading Solutions Launches FixConnect to Transform FIX Connectivity and Streamline Onboarding
Horizon Trading Solutions unveiled Horizon FixConnect, a self‑service FIX connectivity layer embedded in its Trader Workspace. The tool lets brokers configure, test and deploy FIX links in near real‑time, cutting onboarding from days to minutes and eliminating system restarts. Built...
Introducing Traders Magazine’s Digital Assets Channel
Traders Magazine announced a new Digital Assets Channel, produced with LMAX Group’s backing, to cover the evolving infrastructure of crypto markets rather than price swings. The launch comes as U.S. regulators advance the Genius Act, the first federal stablecoin framework,...
HQLAX Announces Strategic Investments From Broadridge and Digital Asset
HQLAX secured strategic minority investments from Broadridge Financial Solutions and Digital Asset in a Series C‑1 round, marking a key milestone for its digital collateral mobility platform. The funding will accelerate HQLAX’s technology evolution, its integration with Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo...
SEC Roundtable Reveals Divide Over Legacy Options Rules
At an SEC roundtable on listed options market structure, participants clashed over legacy allocation rules, with some labeling them anti‑competitive and others defending them as essential for liquidity. Speakers highlighted the five‑lot rule’s impact on market‑maker incentives and debated the...
Citi Appoints Lee Smallwood Chief Operating Officer of Markets
Citi has named Lee Smallwood as Chief Operating Officer of its Markets division. Smallwood brings a blend of front‑office market experience, COO leadership, and deep expertise in data, AI, and innovation. In his new role he will work with senior...
Market Participants Clash Over SEC Access Fee Timeline
Market participants are divided over the SEC’s plan to cut exchange access fees from $0.003 to $0.001 per share ahead of the November 2026 deadline. MEMX filed for temporary exemptive relief to postpone the fee‑cap reduction, citing concerns about costly...
Consolidated Audit Trail Enters Perilous Curve
The SEC’s Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) has moved from a delayed rollout to an operational system, but it now faces a costly overhaul. Development expenses have topped $500 million, and the 2025 operating budget of $272 million is five times the 2016...
Cboe Reports Record Daily Proprietary Index Options Volume
Cboe Global Markets reported a record‑high day for its proprietary index options on April 14, 2026, with 8.96 million contracts traded. SPX options accounted for 6.28 million contracts, split almost evenly between same‑day‑expiration and longer‑dated contracts. VIX options saw 2.38 million contracts, the strongest day...
Britni Ihle Joins BlackRock to Lead Trading Transformation in AI Push
BlackRock has hired Britni Ihle as Managing Director to lead its Trading Transformation within the Global Markets AI team. Ihle arrives from Citi, where she oversaw cross‑product and credit quant trading, and previously held senior systematic trading roles at Credit...
SIFMA Welcomes SEC’s Comprehensive Review of the CAT
SIFMA announced its support for the SEC’s concept release that initiates a comprehensive review of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT). The trade association highlighted long‑standing calls for a public review to address CAT costs, governance, funding, and data security. SIFMA...
DERIVSOURCE: Credit Default Swaps See Record Trading Volumes, New Products
Credit default swaps (CDS) saw record activity in Q1, with global trading volume surging 69% to $4.5 trillion, eclipsing the previous peak. S&P Dow Jones introduced the CDX Financials index, linking CDS exposure to private‑credit funds such as Apollo Debt Solutions,...
FINRA Upgrades Systems for Around-the-Clock Trading
FINRA announced that its trade‑reporting facility now operates from 4 a.m. Eastern Time, a shift from the previous 8 a.m. start, to support the growing demand for around‑the‑clock U.S. equity trading. The regulator handles more than half of all equity transaction reporting...
Financial Markets Need Their Own Mission Control
The article likens financial market post‑trade operations to a space mission, arguing that today’s fragmented communication—email chains, phone calls, siloed systems—acts like a missing mission control. When trades fail or discrepancies arise, participants waste time establishing context and confirming ownership,...
QwickRoute’s aRFQ™ Raises the Bar on ETF Liquidity
ETF assets have surged to over $20 trillion globally, prompting demand for more efficient trading tools. MCAP’s QwickRoute platform introduced aRFQ™, an automated Request‑for‑Quote protocol designed specifically for ETFs. In just two years, aRFQ has been adopted by more than 50...