Nomura revives Lehman’s Asian trading platform

Japanese investment bank Nomura has launched a new pan-Asian electronic trading platform for equities, integrating the execution capabilities it acquired from its takeover of Lehman Brothers Asia last September. This follows the launch of Nomura's European equities platform, created from the acquisition of Lehman's European division, in January.

The new ModelEx platform, based on Lehman’s algorithmic and direct market access (DMA) suite, will run simultaneously with Experts, Nomura’s existing electronic trading offering, while the pan-Asian capabilities of ModelEx are built out. Experts currently offers DMA in Japan and Hong Kong, and algorithmic trading in Japan, while ModelEx will be connected to equity markets in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Job cut fears may stall EC mandate on CCP links

While progress has been slow on achieving interoperability between Europe’s cash equity central counterparties (CCPs), it is unlikely that the European Commission (EC) will step in and mandate links between clearing houses any time soon for fear of causing more job losses across the continent.

Few links have been established between CCPs in the three years since the EC introduced its voluntary Code of Conduct for Clearing and Settlement, designed to stimulate interoperability between post-trade providers in Europe, prompting expectations of a more forceful EC directive if more CCP links were not forged quickly.

However, Phillip Silitschanu, senior analyst at research and consulting firm Aite Group, thinks regulatory intervention is now unlikely until at least 2010 or 2011.

FSA tells NYFIX to modify Euro Millennium

Euro Millennium, the pan-European dark pool for equities trading, has been asked by the UK’s financial regulator to make modifications to its functionality, according to a statement by parent company NYFIX, the US-based trading solutions vendor.

In its annual results statement, issued after trading closed in New York last night, NYFIX said that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has “proposed an interpretation of a particular provision of MiFID that would require modifications to Euro Millennium's current functionality”.

NYFIX said that the modifications would result in additional development costs and would need to be completed “within a timeframe acceptable to the FSA”. The firm is engaged in discussions with the regulator over the new interpretation of MiFID’s rules to minimise the impact on its European dark pool. The new FSA ruling is part of a review of MiFID’s impact on Europe’s financial markets by European regulators.

Hedge fund slump and regulation could hit US prop shops

While US high-frequency traders enjoyed a bumper year in 2008 and now account for the majority of average daily trading volume in the US, declining hedge funds volumes and regulatory change could threaten future performance, according to Sang Lee, co-founder of research consultancy Aite Group.

A new report from Aite, ‘New world order: the high frequency trading community and its impact on market structure’, found that high-frequency traders accounted for more that 60% of average daily trading volume in the US in 2008 and estimates this will rise to around 70% in 2009. It defined high-frequency traders as: market makers relying on automated trading technology; low-latency agency brokers; statistical arbitrage hedge funds; and high-frequency proprietary trading firms – so called ‘prop shops’.

Prop shops in particular thrived amid the market turmoil of 2008. “All of the prop shops did incredibly well last year, but the hedge fund side has taken a hit and it will be interesting to see what impact that has on the overall market,” Lee told theTRADEnews.com. “Maintaining a certain level of volume in the market is going to be very important. If that volume goes away, it will not be an ideal situation for some of these high-frequency trading firms.”

UK recyclables in demand in China

Chinese demand for recyclable materials has helped to boost prices for UK firms selling materials abroad, MPs have been told.

Research by WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) revealed that overseas buyers have helped to push prices up by £15 a tonne for cardboard, by £10 a tonne for mixed papers and by £5 per tonne for steel.

Marcus Gover, WRAP's director of market development told the Association Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group the figures showed markets for recyclables are stabilising.

Recycling prices had slumped as a result of the economic downturn.

16th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON TYRE RECYCLING

Valorization and management of post consumer tyres: confirmed the "16th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON TYRE RECYCLING" by ETRA (European Tyre Recycling Association) - Brussels, 25 - 27 March 2009

The “Economics of a Recycling Society”. ETRA confirm its annual discussion about the growing importance of waste recycling materials, first of all tyre recycling materials, and their use to replace virgin resources. Studies and researches on tyre recycling materials and their employment on road sector and civil enginery, rubberised bitumen and asphalt, buildings and concrete, thermoplastics, thermal and acoustic insulation. Furthermore Exhibitions of tyre recycling products, such as rubber kerbs and rubber tiles for urban furniture or sport facilities, rubber flooring and artificial turf. A Poster Show about innovations in tyre recycling products and materials by industry, universities and technical centres, a Technology Forum and a Pyrolysis Forum and round tables on technology and new employments of recycling tyres.
For further information, Conference registration and to download the program www.etra-eu.org