Stock and bond investments have a number of commonly accepted performance benchmarks, such as the S&P 500 and the BarCap indexes.  But with futures-related investments – particularly actively managed ones – evaluating performance can be challenging. Join us for an interesting and informative session that examines these issues from different points of view, with presentations by four recognized industry experts: Hilary Till, Solich Scholar, J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities, University of Colorado-Denver and Principal, Premia Capital Management LLC Galen Burghardt, Director of Research, COEX Partners Inc. Mark Shore, President and Chief Investment Officer, Shore Capital Management LLC Jerry Nolan, Director…...

Stock and bond investments have a number of commonly accepted performance benchmarks, such as the S&P 500 and the BarCap indexes.  But with futures-related investments – particularly actively managed ones – evaluating performance can be challenging. Join us for an interesting and informative session that examines these issues from different points of view, with presentations by four recognized industry experts: Hilary Till, Solich Scholar, J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities, University of Colorado-Denver and Principal, Premia Capital Management LLC Galen Burghardt, Director of Research, COEX Partners Inc. Mark Shore, President and Chief Investment Officer, Shore Capital Management LLC Jerry Nolan, Director…...

The NIBA conference was kicked off with the NFA Reps Panel led by Rodney Dow.  Mike Burke and Paul Georgy, current IB reps to the NFA Board as well as James Koutoulas and John Roe, current CTA reps to the NFA Board participated in the panel.   The panel started with a lively discussion about the proposed NFA Interpretive notice related to cyber security.  Additional topics covered were the NFA process involved in created the interpretive notice as related to cyber security, CTA capital requirements as well as the functions of the NFA board and the workings of the various…...

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Stock and bond investments have a number of commonly accepted performance benchmarks, such as the S&P 500 and the BarCap indexes. But with futures-related investments – particularly actively managed ones – evaluating performance can be challenging. Join us for an interesting and informative session that examines these issues from different points of view, with presentations by four recognized industry experts: Hilary Till, Solich Scholar, J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities, University of Colorado-Denver and Principal, Premia Capital Management LLC Galen Burghardt, Director of Research, COEX Partners Inc. Mark Shore, President and Chief Investment Officer, Shore Capital Management LLC Jerry Nolan, Director…...

6th Edition, The Complete IB Handbook by Melinda Schramm The 6th Edition of The Complete IB Handbook is now available for download HERE. The download is free compliments of the CME Group. I have been writing this guidebook for the Introducing Broker community since 1999. Many things have changed since then — few FCMs, more cybersecurity worries – and I’ve got a lot more wrinkles! But many things have stayed the same — ag-markets are still the most often traded by IB customers, there are still more GIBs registered with the NFA than IIBs, and IBs still list over-regulation as…...

El Nino Made Its Mark In 2015   When the U.S. 2015 crop year is analyzed in years to come–and it will be–there is little doubt in my mind that one of the first phrases to identify this season will be something along the lines of “It was really an El Nino year”.   That may seem like a trivial point–after all, Pacific Ocean temperature patterns catalogued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and analyzed by the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) show that El Nino warmth (above normal equator region temperatures) went into effect in the February-March-April period, and have…...

Wow – that was great! by the 2015 September Conference Committee Almost 200 NIBA members attended an education/information/networking packed-day on September 24 at the NIBA Annual Meeting in Chicago. We’ve received rave reviews for the presenters and the demo room tables from all the attendees. We want to thank all our speakers and sponsors for their support and for making this event easy to plan and implement. We particularly want to thank CME Group for their primary sponsorship and box lunches, and Blu Putnam for the luncheon speech. Over the next few weeks, articles written by the conference speakers and…...

What effect is the El Nino weather pattern having on your business? NIBA members have asked for a product session at our Annual meeting. And we’ve got a great one! At 11:00 AM on September 24, the NIBA will present a panel discussion which touches on all markets. Moderated by Bryce Anderson, head meteorologist for DTN, Drew Moore, Risk Management Consultant for FC Stone will look at the grain markets, and Dan Basse, Preisdent, AgResource, will focus on livestock. Register now and learn how El Nino is affecting the ag and financial markets, how to interpret the effects and how…...

CME Group market data users who had been registered prior to the company’s market data policy changes in 2013 were “grandfathered” in at a lower rate for the first year. As we approach the end of that time period, CME Group will be increasing the market data fee for all users regardless of how long you have been registered, in the markets, members, etc. We don’t want this to catch you by surprise. The data fees have become the new normal, most firms have added the increase into the cost of doing business, and moved on. Billing has been mostly…...