The Americas
Middle East crisis revives demand for VKOs – with a twist
Equity investors balance fear and optimism by pairing 2022’s best hedge with lookback options
Mutual funds are trading inflation like it’s 2022 again
Counterparty Radar: USD CPI notionals hit record levels even before March’s jump in energy prices
Main Street to Wall Street: Kalshi’s bid to go beyond sports bets
Institutional head Andy Ross’s strategy for drawing in investors and charging for ‘wisdom-of-crowds’
Franklin Templeton closes $5bn yen options book
Counterparty Radar: Asset manager’s bets on USD/JPY soured as yen weakened through Q4
US blows the floors off Basel III
Barr criticises “downward deviations” in US rule; Bowman rejects “blind adherence” to global standards
Ellington spinout hopes to ease whole-loan investing
Data hurdles have frustrated insurers as they look to increase allocations
Pimco slashes short dollar forwards at year-end
Counterparty Radar: EUR/USD cuts drive $86.5 billion reduction
CME’s Duffy warns against government intervention in oil markets
Exchange head doesn’t rule out possibility of oil hitting $150 a barrel
Repo stress drove 2025 SOFR-to-fed funds swap pivot
SOFR OIS volumes slipped to almost half of fed funds activity during September repo spikes
How Optimal aims to shake up US retail options trading
New wholesaler has assembled a team of market-makers to compete with Citadel, IMC/Dash and Jane Street
SocGen’s head of US Treasury clearing preparations to depart
Bank’s head of product for FX and fixed income prime brokerage for the Americas set to leave later this month
Itaú Unibanco capital ratio slides ahead of Brazil tax shift
Capital distributions drag CET1 lower as higher RWAs also bite
Real money investors cash in as dispersion nears record levels
Implied spreads were elevated to start 2026. Realised levels have been “almost unprecedented”
JP Morgan gives corporates an FX blockchain boost
Kinexys digital platform speeds cross-currency, cross-entity client payments
Fannie, Freddie mortgage buying unlikely to drive rates
Adding $200 billion of MBSs in a $9 trillion market won’t revive old hedging footprint
How US shutdown set off long-awaited basis bet
Hedge funds dust off a years-in-the-making relative value trade to profit from fallback mismatch
FXSpotStream expands into US Treasuries trading
Bank-owned streaming venue targets mid-year launch, offering “all you can eat” subscription fees
Non-cleared derivatives margining jumps after framework rollout
Margin-to-notional ratio trails early regulatory estimates
Deutsche Bank returns to US swaps client clearing
Re-entry comes after Basel III endgame proposals sparked capacity concerns among global clients
Collateral velocity is disappearing behind a digital curtain
Dealers may welcome digital-era rewiring to free up collateral movement, but tokenisation will obscure metrics
Trump’s LatAm gambit spurs FX hedging rush
Venezuela op boosts risk reversals as investors look to protect carry trades