The options expiry on Friday was closely watched thanks to the fun and games in the Gamma markets initiated by Softbank in July and August but was fortunately not too disruptive.

The ‘Clean network to safeguard US Assets’ aka the new Firewall being proudly touted by Mike Pompeo and as discussed on the blog here last month is likely to have some important and largely unintended consequences.

Sterling dropped, Tech dropped, Oil prices dropped. It all feels like some de-leveraging going on.

The following is an extended version of an article recently published in the Australian Financial Review (firewalled sadly), but I have also included some longer discussion about the role of Money Market Funds in transforming a ‘normal’ financial market crisis in 2008 into an economic one.

The discovery late last week that the leopards don’t change their spots and that the former derivatives traders from Deutsche Bank who had reinvented themselves at genius tech venture capitalists at the VisionFund of Sotfbank had been up to their old derivative markets tricks again is likely to dominate markets this week.