So-called "Gamma Hammer" Fund Bets on Dampening Coronavirus Volatility

The fund nicknamed "Gamma Hammer" from Parametric (owned by Morgan Stanley following its acquisition of Eaton Vance) has been selling options in the wake of US stimulus and vaccine-driven expectations of a dampening in volatility.

Techie-Trader Duo Fleetingly Scores $100bn on NASDAQ

Founded in 2012 by Ex Airbnb Software Engineer Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, trader at Goldman Sachs, in an effort to simplify bitcoin trading, Crypto-exchange Coinbase's IPO heralds crypto's arrival on the stock market.

In 2020, 86% of Coinbase's revenue came from trading commissions. In Q1 2021, its transaction fee was 46bps. Competitors such as Gemini, Bitstamp, Kraken and Binance may pressure these fees downwards.

Biden's 2TR $ Infrastructure Plan includes $50bn for Domestic Semiconductor Manufacturing

Global semiconductor revenues grew 10% in 2020 with Intel (INTC), as usual, the largest vendor. Its stock price is up 37% YTD. MediaTek has also been doing well. 

NASDAQ traded Micron Technology (MU) that has traditionally focused on DRAM has also done well. It is part of the NASDAQ-GS (Global Select market) which is the highest "market tier" on NASDAQ. The other tiers are the "Global Market" and "Capital Market". Micron's President and CEO is Berkeley-educated Sanjay Mehrotra, co-founder of SanDisk (now Western Digital).

"Memory, GPUs and 5G chipsets" are leading the growth, according to Gartner data. US President Joe Biden wants to expand US production and also address China competition.

Oil is in "wait and see mode" says UBS as prices Hover Around $60 per Barrel

Traders are waiting to see if there will be a recovery in consumption from the COVID-19 pandemic. Giovanni Staunovo covers Commodities for UBS, the Asset Management division of which recently came up with its second "Commodity Carry" ETF. An increase in US drilling activity may counteract gains.

Deutsche Bank Sold $4bn Holdings Quick to Escape Big Hit from Archegos

The sale was triggered after Archegos defaulted on margin loans. The bank also navigated the Wirecard AG accounting scandal well (one of Germany's largest accounting scandals) by hedging their exposure,

Big Block Trades Signal Sell-Off Linked to Family Office Archegos run by Bill Hwang

An approximate $30bn of block trades executed through GS, MS and Deutsche Bank is believed to be linked to family office of Bill Hwang. Tencent, Baidu and GSX (Chinese EdTech) were among the names sold. Bill previously founded and managed Tiger Asia Management in 2001 converting his fund into a family office in 2013, following insider trading charges in 2012.

Who is Lex Greensill of Supply Chain Finance Fame?

Lex Greensill founded Greensill Capital in 2011 in Norwich, England.  The company, focused on supply chain finance and derivatives, and backed by Softbank's Vision Fund, filed for insolvency protection on 8 March 2021.