NIBA - Celebrating 35 Years

NIBA Journal

Insights, analysis, and updates from the National Introducing Brokers Association

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Marketing
4 min read

Dangers of Position Limits and Overreaching Regulation

Dangers of Position Limits and Overreaching Regulation William Purpura, Managing Director | Great Lakes Global Limited The CFTC’s proposed position limits along with the complexity and immensity of Dodd-Frank has already caused market participants to take flight from the US markets to OTC and foreign markets which have less onerous regulation. The Commission has often dismissed the probability of regulatory arbitrage as paranoia. One only need to look at the impressive growth in the Brent crude oil contract traded in London in the wake of jawboning about position limits in the US that would affect the WTI crude contract on NYMEX. Chairman Gensler’s view is that there should be “international harmonization” among global regulators to alleviate the threat. This is a wrong approach. The US government, through the CFTC and other agencies has been pressuring other regulators to fall in line, and while there may be some lip service about...

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Marketing
3 min read

Commodity ETFs vs. Futures – An Overview of the Growing Impact of ETFs on the Investor

Opinion by Rich Strait Today ETFs provide the smaller retail investor an ever-growing variety of products that offers indirect access to the futures markets via these securitized instruments. Transactions are done simply through the investor's retail securities account, bypassing the requirement of maintaining a regulated futures account with an FCM. However, this comes at a relatively high cost to the investor. Fees, tax treatment and inefficient futures hedging practices hat may cause price correlation slippage between the ETF price and that of the underlying commodity must all be considered. Despite these pricing realities, the meteoric growth of ETFs has dramatically altered market fundamentals. ETF investors are mostly holding long positions, so large pools of non-working underlying inventories of allocated physical commodities or exchange futures (or a combination) are created. This buying and holding drives prices artificially higher while increasing margin requirements on the underlying futures contracts. The results can have...

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Marketing
7 min read

Managed Futures to Grow to $3 Trillion in Assets Under Management: New Challenges and Opportunities for Managed Futures IBs

The good news for Introducing Brokers (IBs) offering direct managed futures accounts might be found in industry growth projections. Bold industry discussions are eyeing a target of $3 trillion in managed futures assets under management. That’s a long way from the current level of $267 billion, according to the latest 4th quarter estimate from Barclay Hedge. If this were to come even close to true, the resulting explosive growth would not only be historic in the cloistered futures and options industry, but more significantly it would represent a monumental shift in the core investing landscape. While this may sound a little optimistic if not wildly aggressive, this milestone just might be realistic when some core analysis is applied. There will be introducing brokers (IBs) that succeed in this new environment – but also many that fail to adapt to this new world. Yes, with managed futures growth is a double...

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Marketing
5 min read

Behind the Scenes of the Merger Between the CME and CBOT: Interview with Erika Olson, Author of Zero-Sum Game

An interview with former Managing Director at the Chicago Board of Trade and author of Zero-Sum Game, Erika Olson. Erika Olson was a newly hired managing director at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) made an $8 billion offer to buy the company in October 2006. Her book, Zero-Sum Game: The Rise of the World’s Largest Derivatives Exchange, is based on detailed notes she took over the course of a year as a bidding war between CME and IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) erupted for CBOT. Now that the same futures executives in Olson’s book are helping to shape the derivatives-related Dodd-Frank financial reform laws, the story of how and why the exchanges came to be in such an influential position couldn’t be timelier. Shane Stiles: What was your motivation for writing Zero-Sum Game? Erika Olson: Within days of joining CBOT—even before I learned about the Merc’s...

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Marketing
7 min read

Interview with John C. Jensen | President, Membership Chairman of NIBA

John C. Jensen President, Membership Chairman of National Introducing Brokers Association Interview Date: January, 2011 Interviewed by John F. Gallwas - Founder of Striker Securities John C. Jensen (NFA 229230) is President of the National Introducing Brokers Association ("NIBA"), a Chicago based trade association. The NIBA provides a format for the members of the commodity futures industry to address mutual areas of interest, as well as to provide an information platform for the public. Members include Introducing Brokers ("IB"), Commodity Trading Advisors ("CTA"), Futures Commission Merchants ("FCM"), futures exchanges, and industry regulators. Mr. Jensen is also President and Founder of Heritage West Financial, Inc., a registered IB located in San Diego, California. John Gallwas: The focus of this interview is to highlight the IB members of the NIBA and the various services these organizations provide to the futures customer. Futures regulators define the IB as "a firm or individual that...

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Marketing
5 min read

Interview with Bucky Isaacson: Co-founder CTA EXPO

Bucky Isaacson President, Futures Funding Consultants Inc. (NFA 1974) Program(s) Developed: Co-Chairman CTA Expo Chicago, New York Interview Date: December, 2010 Interviewed by John F. Gallwas - Founder of Striker Securities Bucky Isaacson became one of the early pioneers of managed futures when he joined a group in 1969 that developed a computerized trading system. From that point forward he has focused on developing managed futures business, particularly in Asia, and becoming a prominent leader in the managed futures field. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Futures Association and currently serves on the Board of directors of the National Introducing Brokers Association. He is President of Futures Funding Consultants with headquarters, located 30 miles south of San Francisco, in Woodside, California John Gallwas: According to BarclayHedge, Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA) had $233.4B under management at the end of the 2ndQ of 2010, up...

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Marketing
2 min read

NIBA Conference Session: Generating Website Traffic [VIDEO]

Website Traffic Generation and Leveraging Your NIBA Membership A LIVE Interactive Discussion | Shane Stiles, President of gate39media How can you generate more traffic to your brokerage website? How do you increase your online visibility? And how can the NIBA help? Answers to these questions and how IBs and CTAs can benefit from the current and future versions of the NIBA website. It was a pleasure to speak at the NIBA Conference last week, the conference was a huge success. For anyone who was unable to attend, the video and slides from my presentation Website Traffic Generation and Leveraging Your NIBA Membership can be viewed below. Website Traffic Generation and Leveraging Your NIBA Membership Presentation starts at 13:00 minute mark --> --> NIBA Chicago 2010 - Internet Visibility for Introducing Brokers and CTAs - Futures Marketing View more presentations from gate39media. Please feel free to contact me with any questions...

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Marketing
1 min read

NIBA Session: Corn's Market Demand [VIDEO]

Corn's Market Demand: Where Do We Go From Here? Darin Newsom, Senior Analyst, DTN At the 2010 NIBA Conference, recognized analyst Darin Newsom of DTN  provided attendees with a brief commentary on one of the hottest commodities--corn. We are pleased to present the slides and video of his presentation. Corn's Demand Market Presentation slides (PDF) Video ends at 12:30 mark. We apologize for the technical difficulties at the beginning of this presentation. --> --> Please feel free to contact Darin at: 800.485.4000 ext.3679 or darin.newsom@telventdtn.com Twitter: @DarinNewsom www.telventdtn.com

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Marketing
7 min read

The Benefits and Risks of Utilizing Social Networking Sites In the Workplace

Social Networking is one hot topic these days. Globally, interest and participation in social media is growing at phenomenal rates. While people increasingly understand how to use Social Networking tools in their personal lives, businesses are experiencing uncertainty regarding the implications of using these tools in the workplace. One thing is for certain: the impact of online Social Networking is far-reaching and presents a range of challenges and opportunities for most organizations. Given the explosive growth of Social Networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and others, now is the time for companies to establish policies regarding their use in the workplace. Social Networking holds great promise for improving corporate communications and addressing business opportunities. Businesses can benefit in a myriapd of ways from the use of Social Networking websites. For example, companies can build awareness of their organizations, become more visible to prospective clients, maintain contacts with business...

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Marketing
5 min read

How To Make the Most Out of a Conference

16 years ago, Horizon Cash Management asked a host of industry professionals to contribute their best tips for making the most of a conference. Remarkably, many of those suggestions are as timely and appropriate today as they were when first submitted. Among those helpful hints: "Set definite goals for what you expect to accomplish. Make appointments in advance. Bring lots of business cards and disclosure documents. Focus on making friends, not just business contacts. Talk to your competitors: you might learn something important. Eat and drink sensibly: party some other time." --Jane Martin, MFA "Visit the exhibit hall early: vendors often run out of the best stuff. Don't bother to take promotional literature: people appreciate not having to travel with this extra bulk. Think of having business cards with your picture on them: it might help others remember you after three mind-numbing days of shaking hands and smiling." --Frank Smith,...

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