Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Seems strange that it could go so long in a heavily regulated industry. This might have gone undetected if they had a reliable, encrypted back-channel. Talk only “legitimate” trade talk on the recorded channels, keep the spoofing to the back-channel. (Now watch the FBI pick up that argument.) Of course, the offers to buy and the canceled orders are all recorded too.
Key to catching the traders charged with manipulating metals futures: electronic chatter
A new sweep of three big banks and six traders for allegedly manipulating metals futures relied heavily on electronic chatter to build a case.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced criminal and civil enforcement actions on Monday against Deutsche Bank AG and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, UBS AG and HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. and six individuals involved in spoofing and stop loss collusion schemes.
Deutsche Bank AG and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. were hit the hardest, agreeing to pay a $30 million penalty while neither admitting or denying they failed to supervise precious metals traders who allegedly schemed to manipulate the price of precious metals futures contracts and allegedly colluding to trigger customer stop-loss orders. The fraud allegedly ran from Feb. 2008 to at least Sept. 2014.
… As in past enforcement orders regarding traders schemes, the CFTC along with the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI relied on the mandatory recordings of trader chatter to prove the brazen nature of the schemes.
One trader was recorded responding to another trader’s discussion of a bid with, “For anyone. Or a spoof?” to which the other trader admits, “spoof.”
In another conversation, one trader admitted in another in a chat that he used spoofing to manipulate the market: “so glad I could help...got that up 2 bucks...that does show u how easy it is to manipulate it so[me]times.” Trader A c ommented further: “that was alot of clicking...i know how to ‘game’ this stuff.”




OMG. Are we going to start seeing WWBD T-shirts? (What Would Bezos Do) On the other hand, Amazon might like a really pliable state legislature.
To Get Anything Done, Georgia Politicians Say, ‘Do It for Amazon’
From a religious-freedom bill to a proposed English-only constitutional amendment, Georgia politicians and advocates are invoking Amazon’s name.
The prospect of luring the retailer here is being used as political ammunition, notwithstanding that Amazon.com Inc. is months away from picking among Atlanta and 19 other finalists for the location of its second headquarters.




How easily the health care industry panics.
Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Move to Target Health-Care Costs
Amazon.com Inc., Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. said they plan to collaborate on a way to offer health-care services to their U.S. employees more transparently and at a lower cost. The three companies plan to set up a new independent company “that is free from profit-making incentives and constraints,” according to a short statement on Tuesday.
The move sent shares of health-care stocks falling in early trading. Express Scripts Holding Co. and CVS Health Corp., which manage pharmacy benefits, slumped 6.7 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. Health insurers Cigna Corp. and Anthem Inc. also dropped.




We’re creating more videos for our students, so this might be useful.
A Free Teleprompter
Thanks to Beth Holland this weekend I learned about a free teleprompter service called CuePrompter. CuePrompter displays your written script in a clear, large, scrolling format in your web browser. It's perfect for use when recording yourself or someone else on camera.
To use CuePrompter just go to the site then start entering your script into the "quick start" text box. After you have entered your script you can select the size of the prompter display, the size of the text, and the display color scheme. Click "start prompter" when you're ready to start using your script in the CuePrompter display. You can adjust the speed at which your script scrolls down the screen. If you need to stop and rewind, you can do that in the script display too.


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