Kelly Edmiston will present “Economic Conditions in the U.S. and Kansas City Region.” The presentation will begin with a discussion of recent output in the U.S. economy and provide a near-term outlook based on publicly available Federal Reserve projections and a consensus of leading forecasters across the country. The discussion will then turn to a detailed discussion of labor market trends and outlook in both the U.S. as a whole and in the Kansas City area specifically. A number of interesting trends are shaping the labor market outlook, and several of these are rather unique to the recent recession, aptly…...

Opinion piece by Richard Strait | Strait, LLC Over the past 7-10 years the FCM community has contracted exponentially to just a handful of providers. While many reasons for this can be cited, those that stand out are the increased costs of the regulatory compliance and increased capital requirements, coupled with skyrocketing regulatory haircuts levied on that capital and lower revenues. While the electronic market place has increased the cost efficiency of the Exchanges and their member firms, Capital “haircuts” on customer segregated funds alone may reach 10% in the near future while only five years ago they were as…...

On June 21, 2012, the Kansas City Board of Trade will host the NIBA Summer Marketing and Sales Event. Registration and coffee open at 1:15pm and the business sessions begin at 2:00pm. A cocktail reception will follow immediately. The Kansas City Board of Trade, established near one of the world’s most fertile growing regions, is the largest free market for hard red winter wheat. Prices negotiated at the KCBT are the benchmark for wheat prices around the world. The KCBT was founded in 1856 and 20 years later a “grain call,” similar to wheat futures trading as it is known…...

In an era of surging world commodity demand and continual tight supplies, weather happenings both in the U.S. and in such global production areas as Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine, and China have the market’s attention on a day-to-day basis. DTN senior ag meteorologist Bryce Anderson will discuss the impact of such features as floods and drought on the market’s psyche. He will also review the latest trends in the Pacific regarding El Nino/La Nina and offer an up-to-date forecast for the rest of the 2012 growing season in northern hemisphere crop regions. A review of crop weather patterns in the southern…...

The kick-off session at the April 18, Spring NIBA meeting in New York City was concentrated on Forex Transactions. The panel was sponsored by the CME Group and included Craig LeVeille, Executive Director, FX Products, CME Group, Steven Hatzakis, Steven Joseph Hatzakis, CTA and Raphael Savrnoch, Vice-President, Business Development, Alpari US. In the audience interactive discussion, we focused on four specific areas: 1. FX Market Developments in General 2. Challenges with both Forex OTC and Forex Futures 3. Reasons to Trade Spot FX On-Exchange 4. Reasons to Trade FX Off-Exchange The panel reported results of recent surveys which indicate that…...

Conflict of Interest The CFTC has adopted Rule 1.71. The Rule pertains to Conflict of Interest and will require most CFTC registered firms to implement a “Chinese wall” between the research department and non-research departments, and will therefore mainly impact the business trading unit or clearing units at futures commission merchants and introducing brokers, as applicable. The rule goes into effect June 4, 2012. Specifically, the CFTC put restrictions on who may have a relationship with the research department, who may communicate with the research department, and how the compensation for research analysts may be determined. Furthermore, there are new…...

Recently, the CFTC issued rules to eliminate the 4.13(a)(4) exemption and add marketing and trading restrictions to the 4.5 exemption that exempted certain pool operators from registering as a CPO. Although the effective date of the 4.5 changes is still pending, entities that currently hold 4.13(a)(4) exemptions will only remain exempt until December 31, 2012. Prior to that date, exempt CPOs will need to consider whether their trading activities will qualify for an alternative exemption or whether they will need to become registered as a CPO. Another of the recently adopted changes requires an annual reaffirmation of the remaining exemptions.…...

DTN ProphetX is the flagship technical analysis and trading package offered by TelventDTN. In serving DTN ProphetX customers around the globe, we see new requirements every day. The software must handle higher volumes in just about all markets. We also continue to encounter new demands for data and specialized product capabilities. In meeting these challenges, we continue to add access to futures markets around the globe as well as adding more and more cash pricing data in grains, energies, industrial goods and more. Through periodic releases of the software, new features are added regularly.  We continue to add content and…...

Many introducing brokers (IBs) have claims in the MF Global Inc. (MFGI) SIPA liquidation. These claims have generally been for IB proprietary funds held in MFGI segregated futures accounts and for commissions earned during October 2011, although some IBs are also evaluating the potential for other claims based on damages and lost profits deriving from MFGI’s collapse. Claims for funds held in futures accounts were commodity customer claims that needed to be filed by January 31, 2012. Claims for brokerage commissions earned during October 2011 are general unsecured claims that must be filed by June 2, 2012. The MFGI trustee…...

Lawmakers on the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on March 28 to investigate the events that led to the loss of customer funds at MF Global during its final days before going into bankruptcy. The witnesses included four current and former MF Global executives. At the start of the hearing, Representative Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.), the chairman of the subcommittee, emphasized to the witnesses that his committee is simply trying to discover what took place. “This is a hearing and not a trial,” Neugebauer said at the onset of the three-hour hearing. “It’s…...