Topley’s Top Ten – December 21, 2017

1.30 Year Treasury Spike….Someone Made $60 Million on the Trade.

But at least one large position amassed last week looks prescient. Someone bought 50,000 put options on bond futures at an average price of 1’04 ticks, according to a trader familiar with the transaction, wagering that the price of long-dated Treasuries would fall as 30-year yields increased. That price jumped to 2’21 ticks Tuesday amid a sustained climb in long-end yields to 2.82 percent, leaving the bet showing a profit of about $60 million.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-19/trader-turns-60-million-profit-in-sharpest-bond-selloff-of-2017

Continue reading

Topley’s Top Ten – December 20, 2017

1.Venture capital investment hits all-time record

Global venture capital investment has hit an all-time record, with more than $142 billion already disbursed in 2017, according to data provider PitchBook.

  • Fewer startups are raising money, but the round sizes are getting appreciably larger. For example, though mid-October, eight companies had raised rounds of $500 million or more.
  • There has been a boom in fundraising by Chinese startups, partially driven by an increase in local capital sources.
  • S. venture investment has hit $81.2 billion, which still trails dotcom era totals from 2000.

https://www.axios.com/vc-investments-2518448702.html
Continue reading

Topley’s Top Ten – December 18, 2017

1.New ETF Creations on Track to Hit $500B in 2017 vs. $287B in 2016

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-fueling-bull-market-edward-yardeni/?trackingId=wmncdgL%2BdiRpZYN%2BEYrsbA%3D%3D

New ETF Assets For 2017 Nears

December 15, 2017

Cinthia Murphy

Investors poured nearly $30 billion into U.S.-listed ETFs in the past week, bringing total net creations so far in 2017 to $466 billion.

The massive, record asset-gathering pace now sits just inches away from what could be a new milestone for the ETF market: $500 billion in net inflows in one calendar year. With two weeks to go in December, hitting $500 billion seems very likely.

For perspective, consider that 2016 also saw record-breaking asset gathering in the U.S. ETF space, with net creations reaching $287.5 billion last year. We are on pace to almost double that haul in 2017. What’s more, combined with performance, the asset inflows grew the ETF market to $3.4 trillion in total assets—that’s almost $1 trillion bigger than where the market sat a short year ago.

http://www.etf.com/sections/weekly-etf-flows/weekly-etf-flows-2017-12-14-2017-12-08

Continue reading