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Another Data Leak: Citi Edition

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Think data leaks, in which the FOMC sends minutes to its banker supervisors a day in advance, where HFT algos pay millions to get key data to their collocated servers 10 milliseconds early, where journalists freely breach embargos and/or "secure" government lock-rooms are bypassed with a simple text message, are purely a US phenomenon? Think again. As Citi explains, today we saw just this taking place in the City.

  • Sterling provided the main focus when, somewhat suspiciously, it went very bid ahead of the release of UK employment data at 09:30.
  • Inevitably, this sparked a lot of talk that the data had been leaked. CitiFX Wire reported at 09:10: “This is extremely spurious – while it is not unknown for official UK data to leak, it is extremely rare. The data are released to journalists in a locked-room environment.”
  • However, the data duly came out much better than expected – so it lookslike we’ll be eating humble pie for lunch - again.
  • CitiFX Wire doesn’t subscribe to conspiracy theories, but the move strongly suggests that either someone got very lucky, or that they’d been given a bit of a nod & a wink.
  • The September claimant count came in at -41.7k (forecast -25k), while the LFS unemployment rate was 7.7% as forecasted.
  • Cable spiked briefly as high at 1.6064 on Reuters, but then eased immediately to 1.6020. It had been around 1.6035 just before the release.EURGBP eased around 10-pips to 0.8440.

* * *

So is this merely a pervasive phenomenon in which the leakage rules are only made to be broken, or following the crackdown on US early data releases, are traders forced to find other, more "permissive" venues like the UK? We expect to never find out.

 

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Wed, 10/16/2013 - 06:46 | 4059659 slotmouth
slotmouth's picture

I'm shocked!

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 06:52 | 4059668 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

Geez.....I'm not even awake yet. Warn me next time you leak crap this early!

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 08:35 | 4059829 idea_hamster
idea_hamster's picture

Sleep is for the weak and poor.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:43 | 4059735 Nothing but the...
Nothing but the truth.'s picture

All the markets are so contrived, fabricated and distorted , they are simply pure theatre and fantasy.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 06:47 | 4059660 ZippyBananaPants
ZippyBananaPants's picture

Regulators are a fucking waste!

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:08 | 4059684 Zero Point
Zero Point's picture

Best cops money can buy.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 06:50 | 4059663 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Insider trading based on manipulated data.  Oh, the irony.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 06:50 | 4059664 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I don't believe in coincidences when they occur in a corrupt system.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 06:51 | 4059667 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Such as back to back comments by you and I?

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 06:59 | 4059674 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Attached at the hip from birth? Or Genius flocking to the same brilliant flicker?

<Or maybe just the obvious being spoken out loud?>  :)

BTW Banzai7.....thank you for sharing an extremely personal event in your life when you published your piece about the passing of your mother. Speaking for myself I was honored that you shared that portion of your journey with me.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 12:16 | 4060835 Oracle 911
Oracle 911's picture

You are not alone. Me too.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 06:50 | 4059665 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

The Efficient Market Hypothesis says this is bankster price efficiency.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:36 | 4059727 Clowns on Acid
Clowns on Acid's picture

Indeed Billy B - The Efficient Market Hypothesis also assumes that there is a "risk free rate", Rf. Now if one is rigging the Libor rate, is it really risk free and to whom? Also, if the US Traesury does default does the Tbill rate / swap market rate lose it's place as a "risk free" input into the Efficient Market hypothesis?  What takes its place ....the gold swap rate ?   

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 06:51 | 4059666 geotrader
geotrader's picture

Anal oil leakage.  Happens every time. 

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:01 | 4059679 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I hate it when that happens. The bilge area where we peons reside stinks for days afterwards.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 06:52 | 4059669 involuntarilybirthed
involuntarilybirthed's picture

Data leaks, NSA invading our privacy, the continuous news will condition us to expect irregularities, even illegal ones.  Like a leaking faucet we just surrender and live with it although it pisses us off when we are in a cranky mood.  Sad.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:19 | 4059698 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

leaks are one thing...collection another. the "new math" has gone global...securing the data remains the imperative and it still remains...amazingly in my view...the total purview of the private sector. as Alan Greenspan said "how is one to know?" and of course "by knowing" that is how. "Monte Carlo methods are only to be used when all other options have been exhausted." in other words if you have the empirical or "hard" data...you are not dealing in the world of estimates and approximation. sure...the other side might "win"....but you're not guessing either.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:17 | 4059693 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

The is still competition, even in the midst of corruption. Fundamentals are over, done, in the past. Now they game is getting the best front running, insider trading, formerly illegal information to adequately "anticipate" the market.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:28 | 4059711 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

HedgeFund of BestMan at George Osborne's wedding makes £18 million on sale of Royal Mail.

Izz an Injusteeez it is!

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:28 | 4059712 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

HedgeFund of BestMan at George Osborne's wedding makes £18 million on sale of Royal Mail.

Izz an Injusteeez it is!

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:28 | 4059713 brucyy
brucyy's picture

Efficiency bitches !

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:28 | 4059714 max2205
max2205's picture

Right and Snowden damaged the UKs security ( read reputation)....UK

A Dark and scarry underworld....

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:39 | 4059730 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Quants strike again.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:49 | 4059744 Quinvarius
Quinvarius's picture

Well.  It was invented BS fraud data anyway.  So now the fraud data was fraudlently released to professional fraud practioners.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:50 | 4059750 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

Warren (welfare queen) Buffet referring to the "witch-hunt & unfair persecution" of Jamie Dimon ( poor lamb ) as ' . . they want their pound of flesh '.

touchingly Biblical

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 07:55 | 4059758 jmcadg
jmcadg's picture

Efficient markets. No need to regulate. No need for the Corrupt Team of Fucking Cunts! Fuck you Chilton you sell out.

Just do it elsewhere. No boundaries, no borders.

The City = Wild West.

Same shit different day.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 08:47 | 4059864 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

So 16.7K fewer claimants is worth all that?

If it is anything like the U.S. that's just those people who can't claim anymore.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 09:56 | 4060081 Orly
Orly's picture

Exactly, eb.  The unemployment rate held steady at 7.7%.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 08:53 | 4059883 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

Since we already have the data (at NSA) why don't we see who placed the early trades and who sent the text, email or tweet. I would place this type of trading - which is destroying national wealth and the middle class - right up there with domestic terrorism.

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 09:49 | 4060049 Cacete de Ouro
Cacete de Ouro's picture

Compliance Officers are usually assholes, either incompetent assholes, or smug unlikeable assholes...

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 09:54 | 4060065 Orly
Orly's picture

Actually, the British do this all. the. time.

Absolutely nothing new in 4X here.  They tend to ramp the Cable, or mash it as the case may be, making it appear that there is some "leak" somewhere.  All the retail traders in the overnight jump on it and either, a.) lose their shirts when the real data comes out and the pair reverses, or b.) have nothing to show for their jumping on the band-wagon.

In this case, there was nothing to show because the data had been "priced in" before the release.  Notice the pair just sat there, staring at dumb-founded traders, for the next three hours.

It is the British modus operandus and should be used to illustrate what they are going to be doing tomorrow at 0430 ET.  If you're up, have a look and you can see the rinse, repeat for yourselves.

Or for a real holiday adventure, wait for the UK GDP release to see it in all its glory.

:D

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 10:09 | 4060207 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

I will report back on who was cheating as soon as my email to the NSA gets answered.

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