Nice connection to my Matt Marino post:
Who Pays for Robinhood Order Flow, Part II
There are more details on Robinhood’s payment for order flow arrangements in the Prospectus. I wonder who is behind Jump Trading, er, Tai Mo Shan … sounds like Chynar money. Let me dig around. Bill Disomma and Paul Gurinas don’t sound like Chinese names, hmmm.
“A majority of our revenue is transaction-based, in that we receive consideration in exchange for routing our users’ equity, option and cryptocurrency trade orders to market makers for execution. With respect to equities and options trading, such fees are known as payment for order flow ‘PFOF.’ With respect to cryptocurrency trading, we receive ‘Transaction Rebates.’ In the case of equities, the fees we receive are typically based on the size of the publicly quoted bid-ask spread for the security being traded; that is, we receive a fixed percentage of the difference between the publicly quoted bid and ask at the time the trade is executed. For options, our fee is on a per contract basis based on the underlying security. In the case of cryptocurrencies, our rebate is a fixed percentage of the notional order value. Within each asset class, whether equities, options or cryptocurrencies, the transaction-based revenue we earn is calculated in an identical manner among all participating market makers. We route equity and option orders in priority to participating market makers that we believe are most likely to give our customers the best execution, based on historical performance, and we do not consider transaction fees when routing orders. For cryptocurrency orders, we route to various market makers that we believe offer competitive pricing, and we do not consider Transaction Rebates when routing cryptocurrency orders.
For the year ended December 31, 2020, revenue derived from PFOF and Transaction Rebates represented 75% of our total revenues, and for the three months ended March 31, 2021, represented 81% of our total revenues. Computer-generated buy/sell programs and other technological advances and regulatory changes in the marketplace may continue to tighten spreads on transactions, which could lead to a decrease in our PFOF earned from market makers.”
“… on June 23, 2021, FINRA issued a regulatory notice reminding member firms of the requirement that customer order flow be directed to markets providing the ‘most beneficial terms for their customers’ and indicated that member firms may not negotiate the terms of order routing arrangements in a manner that reduces price improvement opportunities that would otherwise be available to those customers in the absence of PFOF. The impact that this notice may have on the ability of market participants to enter into PFOF arrangements, if any, has not been determined.”
Linda Raschke on Trading Cryptocurrencies
From this recent video:
“The requirements for me are liquidity number one, so you know the old saying, which is in my Trading Sardines book, it’s never a problem getting into a market, it’s always a problem getting out when you want to get out. You want to have the liquidity there.
For that very reason, I have really refrained from getting involved with the crypto markets, even though they lend themselves at times to being technically nice. They’re new markets, we’ve seen Chinese servers go down, we’ve seen pockets of illiquidity and it’s not worth it to me to trade a market where it’s not scale-able.
If I’m putting in the time and effort to do something, I don’t necessarily want to do it on one lots, I want to know that I could do it on size if I chose to do it on size, so it has to have liquidity to get out and it has to be scale-able and I don’t find crypto to have either of those requirements.
There is so much opportunity in lovely trading markets out there, why do I want to deal with a can of worms?”
Chairman Recommended: Deodorant (Update)
This is an update to my deodorant recommendation post of five years ago.
I now use Alaffia’s Everyday Coconut Charcoal Deodorant - Purely Coconut … it smells good, I think it works, and it has this pleasing gray color. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.
Futures Symbols on ThinkOrSwim
They have a nice page for this but I thought I’d duplicate it here:
CME Bitcoin /BTC
CME Micro Bitcoin /MBT
E-mini DOW /YM
E-mini Nasdaq-100 /NQ
E-mini Russell 2000 /RTY
E-mini S&P MidCap 400 /EMD
E-mini S&P 500 /ES
Nikkei 225 /NKD
CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) /VX
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (ICE) /MME
Micro E-mini DOW /MYM
Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 /MNQ
Micro E-mini Russell 2000 /M2K
Micro E-mini S&P 500 /MES
Mini CBOE Volatility Index /VXM
RBOB Gasoline /RB
Heating Oil /HO
Light Sweet Crude Oil /CL
Natural Gas /NG
E-mini Crude Oil /QM
E-mini Natural Gas /QG
Gold /GC
Silver /SI
Copper /HG
Platinum /PL
Palladium /PA
1,000-oz. Silver (CME) /SIL
E-Micro Gold (CME) /MGC
2 Yr Note /ZT
5 Yr Note /ZF
10 Yr Note /ZN
30 Yr Bond /ZB
Eurodollar /GE
Fed Funds /ZQ
Ultra Bond /UB
Ultra 10 Yr Note /TN
Corn /ZC
Oats /ZO
Soybeans /ZS
Soybean Meal /ZM
Soybean Oil /ZL
Wheat /ZW
E-mini Corn Futures /XC
E-mini Wheat Futures /XW
E-mini Soybean Futures /XK
KC Hard Red Winter Wheat /KE
Australian Dollar /6A
British Pound Sterling /6B
Canadian Dollar /6C
Euro F/X /6E
Japanese Yen /6J
Mexican Peso /6M
New Zealand Dollar /6N
Swiss Franc /6S
US Dollar Index (ICE) /DX
E-Micro AUD/USD /M6A
E-Micro GBP/USD /M6B
E-Micro EUR/USD /M6E
E-mini Euro FX /E7
E-mini Japanese Yen /J7
Cocoa (ICE) /CC
Coffee (ICE) /KC
Cotton (ICE) /CT
Orange Juice (ICE) /OJ
Sugar (ICE) /SB
Random Length Lumber /LBS
Feeder Cattle /GF
Lean Hogs /HE
Live Cattle /LE
My Lady Love
When I first heard this song I thought it was sung by a black guy from the Deep South not a little blonde Swede … I still dig it: Olle Nyman singing Heart and Soul.
Movies Watched -- Bound (1996)
109 minute running time so ten minutes too long … this wasn’t terrible, but… stars Ralph Cifaretto playing Ralph Cifaretto before he was Ralph Cifaretto … it also stars Jennifer Tilly and her baby girl voice (she’s beautiful, Chinese dad, “Jennifer Chan”) and Gina Gershon, who is super hot with twisted mouth, imperfect teeth, and an expensive tomboy haircut … very violent in parts .. this was a reco from John Farr who wrote: “Before they wrote and directed ‘The Matrix,’ the Wachowskis concocted this smart, highly entertaining sex thriller-cum-mob caper.“ I wasn’t super thrilled, but it’s worth seeing for the great bods of Tilly and Gershon, naked and writhing.
I can't stand women who apologize for wanting sex.
Movies Watched -- The American Friend (1977)
125 minute running time so at least a half hour too long … this was terrible, Dennis Hopper is a damn good-looking man, but he can’t act; it’s painful to watch him on screen … Bruno Ganz is also a damn good-looking man and he can act a little bit, but the story is no good … it’s a bad adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith story, it’s just crap … why they would restore this and Criterion carry it is beyond me. No idea why it was in queue but it was a waste of a borrow!
![What's wrong with a cowboy in Hamburg? [Everything!]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/534dec1fe4b007abc0108d36/1624755820414-88N93JVMQAFHGI2VYLH6/2021-06-26_20-50-53+freunde.jpg)
What's wrong with a cowboy in Hamburg? [Everything!]
Movies Watched -- Neighboring Sounds (2012)
131 minute running time so at least 30 minutes too long, but I really liked this one, and it would be possible for me to do a fan edit to perfect it since it’s just dozens of vignettes strung together and I could cut quite a few. Life in Brazil, really interesting, the class differences and skin color differences, the poverty and corruption (reminded of China) … it’s fascinating … and the women are beautiful. As Farr wrote (and thanks for the reco, John!): “… the master/servant/slave dynamic is still very much alive in modern Brazil.”
I can’t give this a green-go even though I liked it, but if I ever release a 100-minute fan edit, that will be the one to watch!
Reaching for the moon
Can You Stand What's Standing In Front Of You?
Love the song and the band and May Erlewine, who is very beautiful.