New for Traders: Week ending December 21

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) announced a definitive agreement to acquire NYSE Euronext in a transaction valued at $33.12 per NYSE Euronext share (roughly $8.2 billion). The exchanges also entered into a deal under which ICE Clear Europe will clear NYSE Liffe’s derivatives markets.
Getco plans to acquire Knight Capital Group Inc. for $3.75 per Knight share, one-third of it in stock ($1.4 billion total). Knight has been independent for 17 years, but suffered losses of more than $450 million after a trading error in August.
Morgan Stanley will make a strategic equity investment in Eris, a futures exchange offering interest rate swap futures. The financial terms of the arrangement, which is expected to close early next year, were not disclosed.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. launched a data center in Singapore, part of a larger effort to establish a trade repository for over-the-counter derivatives.

CME Clearing Europe introduced two near over-the-counter (OTC) iron ore contracts for clearing: Iron Ore 62% CFR China Average Price Options and Iron Ore 62% CFR China Calendar Swaps.
The European Energy Exchange plans to launch three new futures contracts for trading of hydroelectric power from the Scandinavian and Alpine regions, along with wind power from northern Europe.

The Tokyo Commodity Exchange Inc. (TOCOM) and Nikkei Inc. launched new indexes based on their co-branded indexes. The Nikkei-TOCOM Leverage Index, which is available on a daily basis on TOCOM’s website, is designed to realize a high-risk/high-return investment strategy based on the expectation of a bullish market.

On Dec. 10, ICE Futures Europe reopened the daily futures market for the carbon credit Phase II EU Allowances and Certified Emission Reductions, and launch a new daily futures contract for Phase III EU Allowances.

The Hedge Fund Association announced that it has created a High Net Worth Advisory Board that will develop global educational programs and networking events for high net worth investors.

The Miami Options Exchange (MIAX) launched on Dec. 7 after receiving regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is the 11th U.S. equity derivatives market.
The International Securities Exchange (ISE) will launch trading in Mini Options on March 18, 2013. ISE is the first exchange to confirm a launch date for the options, which will represent a deliverable of 10 shares of an underlying security. Mini Options will initially be listed on APPL, AMZN, GLD, GOOG and SPY.

Thomson Reuters enhanced its FX matching platform designed to boost capacity, scalability and performance. New features include a graphical user interface and click to trade capability.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) will launch two new cash-settled forex futures contacts for the Indian rupee (INR)/U.S. dollar and Brazil real/U.S. dollar beginning Jan. 28, 2013. ICE is the first U.S. exchange to launch an INR futures contract.

NASDAQ launched SMARTS Broker market surveillance for commodities trading on the London Metal Exchange, including the go-live of two global broker-dealer customers, one of which is brokerage Newedge.

SuperDerivatives, a provider of derivatives data and analytics, introduced DGX, its real-time cash and derivatives market data platform. DGX is designed to deliver cash and derivatives market data—including coverage of 800,000 bonds; 50,000 stocks, indexes and ETFS; and 4,000 CDS curves—to the user’s desktop, iPad and/or mobile device.
NASDAQ will now include U.S. consumer demand data on the NASDAQ OMX Event-Driven Analytics service. The index, which will be delivered to the service five minutes before it is sent to other end-users, predicts trends in American consumer spending.
SGX and Eurex will offer market access through their data center linkage beginning in January.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) approved LSE’s planned acquisition of LCH.Clearnet, saying that following a thorough investigation, it “concluded that the deal did not raise competition concerns.”

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) unanimously approved a determination requiring swap dealers to guarantee trades involving six classes of credit default and interest rate at registered clearinghouses.
CME Group Inc. dropped a lawsuit challenging CFTC trade-data reporting rules after the agency withdrew certain requirements governing the routing of trade price and volume information.
The CFTC approved CME’s application to establish its CME Repository Service, a swap data repository. The exchange will waive reporting fees for the service through Sept. 30, 2013, including back-loaded trades.
CME Group Inc. and the National Futures Association chose AlphaMetrix360 as their electronic data aggregation services provider. The new partnership is designed to create a system to collect bank balances for depositories holding customer-segregated, secured amount and sequestered funds for futures commission merchants.

The U.S. Treasury Department exempted forex swaps and forwards from Dodd-Frank regulations that will apply to other derivatives. The agency explained the decision by saying that “unlike other derivatives, FX swaps and forwards already trade in a highly-transparent, liquid and efficient market.”

This week, ICE acquires NYSE, Getco takes over Knight and NASDAQ launches new market surveillance for commodities