Introduction Venezuela is a state in chaos; this is a systemic issue that arises from many long years of economic mismanagement from the Chavismo administration which has ruled for two decades. These issues are now coming to light given the dismal state of affairs in Venezuela, the most obvious indicator Read more…
Introduction Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have constantly been on the rise ever since the 2008 financial crisis. Year over year, increasing amounts of assets are placed in ETFs causing their market share (especially in the United States) to expand to over 25% of total open-end funds in 2018 according to Read more…
US This week saw modest gains on most American indexes, with the s&p increasing by 0.39% and Nasdaq by 0.9%. The Dow remained fairly stable with a loss of -0.02%. Overall the markets seem to be pricing in a relaxed scenario for tariffs as the deadline for trade talks between Read more…
Introduction After examining the main features of the repo market as well as some peculiar characteristics of the European credit repo market (https://bsic.it/the-invisible-gears-repo-agreement-and-the-credit-repo-market-part-1/) we would like to walk you through what happens when a repo fails (and why this might happen) and the recent reform of the CSDR, i.e. the Read more…
EUROPE During this week European indices have on average soared by 1% . In particular, the German DAX30 started the trading week at 11’267 and closed around 11’460 and the French CAC40 opened at 5’160 and closed at 5’215, both increasing around 1.5%. Differently from core countries, the most important Read more…
Description of Belt and Road Initiative The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as the One Belt One Road (OBOR) or the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road, is a development strategy adopted by the Chinese government involving infrastructure and investments in European, Asian and Read more…
Introduction On Tuesday (Feb 12, 2019), right at the deadline for the decision to be made, Banco Santander announced that it had decided not to repay its outstanding €1.5bn CoCo bonds. CoCo bonds are hybrid securities mostly belonging to Additional Tier 1 capital, introduced by regulators in the wake of Read more…
Introduction Often overlooked and easily dismissed as a basic collateralised loan, repos (the short form for repurchase agreement) are much more. In fact, well-functioning (and possibly liquid) repos market is essential for the stability and efficiency of the “proper” securities markets. These is why we have defined them as the Read more…
In this article we analyze the advantages of combining together value and momentum long/short portfolios in many asset classes and in different geographical areas. In fact, they have historically shown negative correlation between them. You can exploit it by including value and momentum in a portfolio, which will have a Read more…
USA Financial markets have reacted positively to the talks between China and the US held in Beijing, that next week will move to Washington, with the S&P500 scoring a +2.50% over the week. The Dow Jones and the Nasdaq both increased by 3.09% and 2.05%, respectively. The deadline for the Read more…
“May you live in interesting times” says a Chinese proverb… Well, 2018 was actually pretty interesting to say the least for markets, with 93% of asset classes posting a negative return in USD terms – this figure is astonishing not only when compared to last year when only 1% of Read more…
US Oil production in America continued its rise, hitting home market concerns that a surge in supplies would further put downward pressures on prices. Synchronized global movements have not helped either, as the rise in American oil production is matched by Saudi Arabia and Russia. The growth in supplies also Read more…
As the automotive industry evolves towards EV’s (electrical vehicles), an analysis of all the new commodities that will be used in the sector, in particular the battery sector, is required. EV batteries are made of an anode and a cathode. The anode is always made up of graphite, while the Read more…
“Option Greeks” is the common name for the sensitivities in price of options or, in general, of derivatives and portfolios of derivatives, with respect to different factors, such as spot price of the underlying, implied volatility, risk-free interest rate, etc. Each Greek represents the ratio between the change in price Read more…
US The shortened Thanksgiving-week turned out to be the worst Thanksgiving-week since 1939, with the S&P 500 losing around 3.5% over the past week to close at 3,632.5 points as stock markets closed early at 1pm in New York due to the holiday. The S&P 500 is down 10% compared Read more…