The CFTC will step up its efforts to ensure markets are a cooperative game in which everybody wins:
The top U.S. commodity regulator will review algorithmic trading and other practices such as “spoofing” and “quote stuffing” as part of the largest rewrite of Wall Street rules since the 1930s.
…
Pease said the agency’s staff is examining strategies in which traders submit and then cancel thousands of orders in milliseconds. CFTC investigators want to know whether the practice is a form of “spoofing” in which market participants try to trick other computers into making decisions that can be exploited for profit, Pease said.The Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, named for Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank and Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, both Democrats, attempts to relieve the commission of the burden of proving a trader intended to manipulate prices. Instead, the CFTC will have to show the trading was “reckless.”
He wants to see a reckless trade? Well, any market order is reckless. Any stop-loss order is reckless and stupid. Any Technical Analysis is reckless, stupid and … I can’t think of a suitable epithet. Anyway, those three categorizations should be enough to get them started.
OSFI has published more boxtickingwork for banks, titled Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) for Deposit-Taking Institutions.
A top contender for “Most Ridiculous Fund of 2010” closed today:
Connor, Clark & Lunn Capital Markets Inc. (the “Manager”) is pleased to announce the closing of the initial public offering of HBanc Capital Securities Trust (the “Fund”). The Fund raised gross proceeds of $147,572,325 from the sale of 5,797,393 Class A Units, Series 1 and 105,500 Class A Units, Series 2, respectively, at a price of $25 per Unit. These amounts include the Class A, Series 1 Units issued in respect of the over-allotment option which was exercised in full. The Fund also raised gross proceeds of U.S. $26,332,225 from the sale of 1,042,724 Class U Units, Series 1 and 10,565 Class U Units, Series 2, respectively, at a price of U.S. $25 per Unit. These amounts include 171,035 Class U Units, Series 1 and 2,165 Class U Units, Series 2 that were issued pursuant to the exchange option. The Class A Units, Series 1 are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HSC.UN. Class A Units, Series 2 and Class U Units will not be listed on a stock exchange but may be converted into Class A Units, Series 1 on a weekly basis.
The Fund was established to provide investors with high levels of stable, tax-advantaged distributions through exposure to Capital Securities issued by HSBC Holdings plc, a conservatively positioned and strongly capitalized global bank.
I am often struck by how much money gets raised for products like this, while I find that selling my own fund is more like pulling teeth. I wonder if this has anything to do with it?
| Price to the public(1) | Agents’ fee | Net proceeds to theFund(2) | |
| Per Class A Unit, Series 1 | $25.00 | $1.3125 | $23.6875 |
| Per Class A Unit, Series 2 | $25.00 | $0.5625 | $24.4375 |
| Per Class U Unit, Series 1 | U.S. $25.00 | U.S. $1.3125 | U.S. $23.6875 |
| Per Class U Unit, Series 2 | U.S. $25.00 | U.S. $0.5625 | U.S. $24.4375 |
Nahhhh … I must be missing something.
A mixed day on heavy volume for the Canadian preferred share market with PerpetualDiscounts gaining 19bp and FixedResets losing 5bp.
PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.42%, equivalent to 7.59% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.4x. Long corporates now yield about 5.2%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread now stands at about 240bp, as slight (and perhaps meaningless) tightening from the 245bp reported on October 6.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0545 % | 2,187.7 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0545 % | 3,314.2 |
| Floater | 2.86 % | 3.19 % | 77,631 | 19.28 | 3 | 0.0545 % | 2,362.2 |
| OpRet | 4.91 % | 3.23 % | 78,507 | 0.13 | 9 | -0.1162 % | 2,373.6 |
| SplitShare | 5.91 % | -28.47 % | 63,809 | 0.09 | 2 | -0.2033 % | 2,383.6 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.1162 % | 2,170.4 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.70 % | 5.14 % | 146,226 | 5.37 | 19 | 0.1735 % | 2,011.4 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.44 % | 5.42 % | 225,308 | 14.71 | 58 | 0.1907 % | 2,003.3 |
| FixedReset | 5.27 % | 3.09 % | 323,279 | 3.28 | 47 | -0.0532 % | 2,269.8 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| GWO.PR.J | FixedReset | -2.21 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-01-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.60 Bid-YTW : 4.01 % |
| BAM.PR.P | FixedReset | -1.21 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-10-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.66 Bid-YTW : 4.18 % |
| ELF.PR.G | Perpetual-Discount | 1.01 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-10-13 Maturity Price : 20.01 Evaluated at bid price : 20.01 Bid-YTW : 5.97 % |
| CM.PR.D | Perpetual-Premium | 1.07 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2010-11-12 Maturity Price : 25.50 Evaluated at bid price : 25.61 Bid-YTW : -2.97 % |
| IAG.PR.A | Perpetual-Discount | 1.37 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-10-13 Maturity Price : 21.39 Evaluated at bid price : 21.39 Bid-YTW : 5.43 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| CM.PR.A | OpRet | 208,000 | Called for redemption. Nesbitt crossed 200,000 at 24.98. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2010-11-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.97 Bid-YTW : 4.26 % |
| CM.PR.J | Perpetual-Discount | 102,616 | CIBC crossed blocks of 20,200 and 52,100, both at 21.50. TD crossed 10,000 at 21.65. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-10-13 Maturity Price : 21.34 Evaluated at bid price : 21.62 Bid-YTW : 5.20 % |
| HSB.PR.E | FixedReset | 72,645 | RBC crossed 50,000 at 28.10. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-07-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 28.06 Bid-YTW : 3.25 % |
| BAM.PR.R | FixedReset | 66,408 | Scotia crossed 48,100 at 26.70. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2021-07-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.60 Bid-YTW : 4.16 % |
| MFC.PR.B | Perpetual-Discount | 64,100 | Scotia crossed 43,800 at 20.30. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-10-13 Maturity Price : 20.20 Evaluated at bid price : 20.20 Bid-YTW : 5.82 % |
| MFC.PR.C | Perpetual-Discount | 63,715 | Scotia bought 13,900 from TD at 19.75; TD crossed 34,000 at the same price. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-10-13 Maturity Price : 19.75 Evaluated at bid price : 19.75 Bid-YTW : 5.76 % |
| There were 53 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
[…] PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.45%, equivalent to 7.63% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.4x. Long corporates now yield 5.2% – maybe a hair over – so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (also called the Seniority Spread) is now at about 240bp, about the same as reported October 13. […]
[…] reinforcing their effort (kicked off with the issue of HBanc Capital Securities Trust, discussed on October 13) to win the covetted PrefBlog “Most Ridiculous Family of Funds” award with the issue of […]