In This Issue:
  • Letter from the Co-CEO: What Lullabies and New Year's Resolutions Have In Common by Lynette Lim
  • Chart View: Wrapping Up the Year by Jeff Gilfillan
  • Phillip Capital's Holiday 2020 Spotify Playlists
  • Phillip Capital Webcast In Partnership with Eurex: The Gateway to Europe
  • Updates from AFX, DGCX, Eurex, HKEX, and SGX
LETTER FROM THE CO-CEO
by
Lynette Lim
What Lullabies and New Year's Resolutions Have In Common

Dear friends,

Many of you who have had kids will remember this very popular song:

Are you sleeping, are you sleeping,
Brother John, Brother John? 
Morning bells are ringing! Morning Bells are ringing!
Ding Dang Dong! Ding Dang Dong!

The origin of the song is French and it is called Frère Jacques, which translates in English to Friar John. You can easily imagine that it was written somewhere deep in a monastery on a particularly snowy day in the French Alps, by a fellow brother in a half-jesting, half-mocking way to tease a very sleepy monk who could not wake up in the mornings.

It is a little ironic, I think, once you actually notice the lyrics and realize that they have exactly the opposite intention of a lullaby!
Phillip Capital's Holiday 2020 Spotify Playlists
Curated by Lynette Lim
This year, instead of a gift list, we’re sharing our very own selection of Spotify playlists. Curated by Phillip Capital staff and industry colleagues, these lists offer songs for a variety of moods this holiday season.
Chart View: Wrapping Up the Year
by Jeff Gilfillan

This segment focuses on what we see in the rear-view mirror. While chart technicians and algo developers may focus on what has happened as near back as the last tick or micro-second, it’s still in the past. We take this data and quickly or slowly make decisions for future trades.
 
When I write these blogs I know that they won’t be published until all other articles are written, compliance has reviewed them, and marketing has prepared the newsletter – this content, written a few days before Christmas, may be irrelevant by the time it’s published, so my opinions focus on weekly and monthly data. As a result, my viewpoint may not change much from one blog post to the next. This has been the case mostly since the aftermath of the February / March COVID related market stress and the accompanying pullbacks or breakouts.
Phillip Capital Webcast In Partnership with Eurex: The Gateway To Europe

In case you missed it, on October 21st 2020 Phillip Capital and Eurex hosted a webcast for retail investors and smaller-sized portfolios investors.

Please watch this webcast on how to access the Mini-DAX® and VSTOXX® futures as a gateway to the European Equity Markets.
Eurex Equity Index News - December 2020
  • Eurex's global MSCI offering and update
  • We are live! Eurex extends the trading hours of further products into the Asian time zones
  • Volatility Trading Through The End Of The Post-Brexit Transition Period
HKEX Celebrates a Milestone Year in MSCI Index Derivatives Trading
Season’s greeting! 2020 has been an unusual year for investors worldwide. Asia’s derivatives market has stayed resilient throughout the pandemic and was given a further boost by the launch of HKEX’s MSCI Index Derivatives in the middle of the year.
SGX
SGX Launches USD/INR (USD) Futures
SGX recently launched new USD/INR (USD) Futures on 23rd November 2020 to strengthen its ecosystem of Indian Rupee based derivative product offerings. This has been introduced as a complementary product to the market leading INR/USD FX Futures (IU) which alone constitute more than 60% of the global market share of offshore rupee based derivatives.
DGCX Wins ‘Exchange of the Year- Middle East and Africa’ at FOW International Awards for the Third Year
Dubai, December 16, 2020: The Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX) – the largest and most diversified derivatives exchange in the Middle East - has been named as ‘Exchange of the Year’ at the prestigious FOW Global Investor MENA 2020 for a third year in a row.
AFX
Goodbye LIBOR, Hello Choice
by Dr. Richard L. Sandor
US banking regulators recently issued guidance giving banks greater freedom in their choice of alternatives to the LIBOR interest rate benchmark, which is set to sunset in 2021. That is good news for banks who are looking for choices to price loans and, in our view, good news for the capital markets in general.
 
Reed Whitman, treasurer at Brookline Bancorp, recently told the ABA Banking Journal, “This is another step on the march toward the legitimacy of alternative benchmarks and for the market to decide what the replacements for Libor will be.” He added that this gives more confidence that “products we develop tied to a non-SOFR rate will be accepted; it’s an additional accelerant.”