S&P Dow Jones Indices

• The Options Institute Research Grant Program aims to support research that helps catalyze the advancement of derivatives usage and financial exchange marketplace structures.
• As the winners of this grant, sponsored by S&P DJI, Dr. Schoenleber and Dr. Vilkov will study the economics behind option-implied factor dispersion.
• Significantly, this research is expected to complement the planned launch of the Cboe S&P 500 Dispersion Index , a new volatility-related index jointly created by Cboe and S&P DJI.
• Cboe has been providing best-in-class investor education through the Options Institute, teaching the responsible use of options and trading strategies for more than 35 years.

• The Standard now offers a new fixed indexed annuity that features an optional enhanced death benefit rider and a proprietary BofA Securities index.
• The Enhanced Choice Index Plus is a single-premium, deferred index annuity for customers seeking growth, certainty and the opportunity to maximize their legacy.
• “The ECI Plus is designed to provide benefits for today and tomorrow,” said Rich Lane, vice president of Individual Annuities sales and marketing at The Standard.
• The index is designed to tap into global innovation and long-term growth trends, while using proprietary technology from Salt Financial.”
  For buyers who want their annuity to do more, the ECI Plus includes the optional Legacy Max enhanced death benefit rider.

• US conservatives claim that ESG has an overly large impact on corporations and the whole economy – hence recent moves to ban the strategy for government investments.
• But critics in Europe argue that ESG funds are not doing enough to have a positive impact in the real world.
• Most ESG funds take conventional mutual funds as their baseline and tweak their capital allocation according to ESG criteria.
• Our market analysis of ESG funds showed that, out of all index-tracking ESG funds, 88% are broad ESG funds.

Who really sets ESG standards?

• There are many but, for example, the S&P 500 represents the US stock market, while the MSCI ESG Leaders USA Index supposedly represents the leading US companies with respect to ESG criteria.
• Further, most ESG funds are based on the ESG ratings of companies, which do not seek to measure a corporation’s sustainability impact on the environment or society.
• Broad ESG investing based on MSCI and other rating and index providers is therefore really only a risk management tool for investors.
• This means that broad ESG funds, which constitute the lion’s share of the market, often only make a rather feeble attempt to manage ESG.

How ESG funds could boost sustainability

• Capital allocation is only one of the potential ways ESG investing can boost sustainability, however.
• This should include clear criteria for broad ESG funds to dictate how capital allocation should deviate from conventional funds, plus favourable taxation or regulatory arrangements to boost the market share of light and dark green funds.
• The volume of “true” ESG funds is still so small that they cannot possibly change contemporary capitalism, indicating the US conservatives’ “war” on ESG is just electioneering.

• CHICAGO, June 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group , the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced plans to launch Ether/Bitcoin Ratio futures on July 31, pending regulatory review.
• The Ether/Bitcoin Ratio futures will be cash-settled to the value of CME Group Ether futures final settlement price, divided by the corresponding CME Group Bitcoin futures final settlement price.
• The new contract will follow the same listing cycle as CME Group Bitcoin futures and Ether futures contracts.
• "The launch of CME Group Ether/Bitcoin Ratio futures further expands the marketplace for institutions and sophisticated investors who want digital asset exposure in a regulated environment," said Jason Urban, Global Head of Trading at Galaxy.