A.I. and crypto are in focus at the annual gathering of the Wall Street trading community
It's time for the annual gathering of the trading community. I'm at the Piper Sandler Global Exchange Conference in New York City Wednesday and Thursday. The heads of all the global exchanges, including the NYSE (ICE) , Nasdaq , Cboe, CME , and the London Stock Exchange, along with crypto movers and shakers, and trading platforms like Interactive Brokers have gathered in New York to talk about the state of global trading in stocks, bonds, commodities, and crypto. Here's a rundown of some of the hot topics: Crypto in focus: SEC Chair Gary Gensler will be speaking at noon on Thursday. Gensler created a stir this week by suing Binance and Coinbase , and will likely amplify and clarify why he has chosen now to sue two of the major crypto companies. Galaxy Digital Holding CEO Michael Novogratz, Coinshares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti, and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev will provide business updates Wednesday but will certainly be pressed to describe how the landscape has changed now that SEC Chair Gensler has become openly hostile to crypto trading platforms. What's the state of equities trading? Doug Cifu, CEO of market maker Virtu Financial and Thomas Peterffy will discuss trends in retail and institutional trading and will no doubt be asked about the curious drop in volatility. Artificial intelligence: What's the impact on trading? Electronic trading changed the trading world 30 years ago, is AI poised to do the same? Two pioneers of electronic trading, Virtu Financial founder Vinnie Viola and Peterffy, will be speaking at noon today, reflecting on the past and future of trading and will certainly be asked about the role AI will play in future trading. Derivatives trading is exploding: Cboe Global Markets CEO Ed Tilly and CME Group CEO Terry Duffy will discuss the continued growth of futures and options trading, which has exploded since Covid. The hottest trend: zero-day options that expire on the same day they are traded. Who wants them? CBOE thinks there is demand. Bond trading and investing: It's bigger than ever, but can it last? Treasury ETFs and mutual funds have seen enormous inflows this year, as have money-market funds that invest in short-term Treasuries. Tradeweb CEO Billy Hult and MarketAxess CEO Chris Concannon will discuss the growth in Treasury trading and the increasing electronification of the bond market. Rich Repetto's final conference: Finally, the conference organizer, Rich Repetto, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Sandler, has been the "ax" [the #1 analyst] in the trading and exchange space for decades. He was around in the 1990s when the electronic brokers started and the internet boom and bust, in the early and mid-2000s when exchanges like NYSE and Nasdaq and CME went public, and in the 2010s with the growth of electronic market makers like Citadel and Virtu. This is his final conference. I'll be speaking with him about his career and a look at the past and future of trading and technology for CNBC PRO Wednesday.