What is lithium?

In its metallic form, lithium is silvery and the lightest of all metals. Most people will remember it from school chemistry lessons when it violently whizzes around on the surface after being dropped into water. The reaction is so vigorous that the metal becomes red hot.

One of the big problems with the metal is that it is highly corrosive and can catch fire spontaneously - in the science lab it has to be stored under oil to prevent its violent oxidisation.

The first commercial lithium-ion battery was released by Sony in 1991, a massive development that revolutionised consumer electronics.

Lithium-ion batteries are filled with a pressurised lithium salt dissolved in an organic solvent, usually ether, with two electrodes and a separator made of non-conductive micro-perforated plastic sandwiched between them. When part of a circuit, lithium ions move from the negative electrode made from carbon (the anode) to a positive electrode (the cathode) made from lithium cobalt oxide, freeing electrons which then travel round the circuit, so creating power.

The batteries are re-charged by applying power to the battery. This forces the ions to move back to the negative electrode and so the process can start over again.

Lithium batteries are light, and have a low self-discharge rate at about five per cent a month. They are far more powerful than comparable batteries using other chemical mixes.

They are available in many shapes and sizes. The battery packs used in electric cars will contain several batteries strapped together to create one unit.

Lithium-ion batteries have a long shelf life, but eventually they stop holding their charge. They are extremely toxic and need to be recycled.

==Wealthfront to be acquired by UBS for $1.4 bln

ZURICH, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS has agreed to buy U.S.-focused automated wealth management provider Wealthfront, which has more than $27 billion in assets under management, in an all-cash deal the two companies said was worth $1.4 billion.

Wealthfront was founded by Benchmark co-founder Andy Rachleff and Dan Carroll in 2008 as kaChing, a mutual fund analysis company, before pivoting into wealth management.

• Assets under management: 25 billion USD
• CEO: Andy Rachleff (Oct 31, 2016–)
• Founder: Andy Rachleff
• Founded: 2008, Palo Alto, CA
• https://www.wealthfront.com/

With over $27 billion in assets under management and more than 470,000 clients in the US, Wealthfront's award-winning, state-of-the-art platform helps clients easily manage their wealth by providing access to financial planning capabilities, banking services and investment management solutions. Following the transaction, Wealthfront and its clients will benefit from access to UBS's leading wealth management capabilities, including the UBS Chief Investment Office's best-in-class thought leadership, an unrivaled global footprint, and deep products and services shelf.

"Adding Wealthfront's capabilities and client base to our global investment ecosystem will significantly boost our ability to grow our business in the US," said Ralph Hamers, Group Chief Executive Officer of UBS. "Wealthfront complements our core business in the US providing wealth management to high net worth and ultra high net worth investors through trusted relationships with financial advisors, and will enhance our long-term ambition to deliver a scalable, digital-led wealth management solution to affluent investors."

Wealthfront's primary focus is on millennial and Gen Z investors, a client segment with significant domestic growth potential. With more than 130 million investors in the US alone, millennials and the Gen Z population together comprise a high growth segment that will own an increasing share of the world's wealth. As UBS looks to establish and grow relationships with additional affluent clients, Wealthfront's capabilities will become the foundation of its new digital offering which will also include access to remote human advice. In addition, Wealthfront will expand UBS's existing offering through the firm's Wealth Advice Center, which focuses on serving core affluent clients, and its Workplace Wealth Solutions business, which works with employees of corporate clients on equity plan participation, financial education and retirement programs.

"Partnering with UBS will allow Wealthfront to offer our clients additional value-added services and best in class research that will help accelerate our vision to make growing wealth delightfully easy," said David Fortunato, Chief Executive Officer of Wealthfront. "We couldn't be more excited to have found a strategic partner who has the same view on the power of technology as we do. We look forward to providing our service to even more millennial and Gen Z investors."

Wealthfront's existing clients will see no immediate change to their experience and can look forward to benefiting from UBS's breadth of products, services, and intellectual capital. Clients will continue to have access to automated investing and personalized financial planning, which provides the ability to link and view outside accounts to better tailor services to each individual client. In addition to investing services, clients will also continue to have access to Wealthfront's banking services, including securities backed loans, instant transfers to investment accounts, direct deposit, bill pay, and transfer services.

Wealthfront will become a wholly owned subsidiary of UBS and will operate as a business within UBS Global Wealth Management Americas. The transaction is currently expected to close in the second half of 2022, subject to closing conditions including regulatory approvals.

UBS Investment Bank is serving as financial advisor to UBS and Sullivan & Cromwell is acting as legal counsel. Qatalyst Partners is serving as Wealthfront's exclusive financial advisor and Fenwick & West is acting as legal counsel.

Robinhood : payment for order flow

(source: WSJ, Feb 4, 2021) The Reddit-fueled frenzy in stocks such as GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. is prompting calls for regulators to reconsider a decades-old practice in the U.S. stock market: payment for order flow.

The practice, in which high-speed trading firms pay brokerages for the right to execute orders submitted by mom-and-pop investors, has long been controversial. Some say it warps the incentives of brokers and encourages them to maximize their revenue at the expense of customers. Supporters, including many brokers and trading firms, say it is misunderstood and helps ensure that investors get seamless executions and good prices on their trades.

Either way, it is big money. Last year, brokerages such as Charles Schwab Corp. , TD Ameritrade, Robinhood Markets Inc. and E*Trade collected nearly $2.6 billion in payments for stock and option orders, according to an analysis of company filings by JMP Securities. The biggest sources of the payments were electronic trading firms such as Citadel Securities, Susquehanna International Group LLP and Virtu Financial Inc.

 

Payment for order flow helped set the stage for the manic trading in GameStop, whose shares began the year around $18, surged to a record close of $347.51 on Jan. 27 and ended Wednesday’s session at $92.41.

That is because payment for order flow made it possible for the U.S. brokerage industry to shift to zero-commission trades in late 2019. No longer needing to pay a fee on stock transactions and empowered by easy-to-use trading apps like Robinhood, individual investors poured into stocks and options at record levels last year. More recently, they snapped up stocks like GameStop that were being touted on Reddit and other social-media platforms.

 

 

Ken Griffin

Citadel Securities, the electronic-trading firm owned by hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin, has played a quiet but critical role in the frenzy of the last two weeks.

The firm—an affiliate of Mr. Griffin’s hedge fund, Citadel—executes orders placed by customers of Robinhood Markets Inc., TD Ameritrade and other online brokerages that have enjoyed surging volumes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Citadel Securities makes money by selling stocks or options for slightly more than it’s willing to buy them. The difference is often just a fraction of a penny per share. But repeated millions of times a day, it adds up to serious money.

Last year, net trading revenue at Citadel Securities was $6.7 billion, almost double the previous high in 2018, a person familiar with the matter said.

Robinhood Added Over 1 Million Accounts During GameStop Turmoil

A new estimate says that the private company’s app was downloaded more than 1 million times from Wednesday to Friday even as Robinhood banned or limited the purchase of several stocks, and users wrote angrily about the company on social media. 

 

The surge in accounts came as the market was transfixed by a surge in retail trading of stocks like GameStop (ticker: GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC).

It’s important to note that app downloads are not the same as new accounts, so the number is a partial snapshot of the company’s success last week.

Still, the strong number for Robinhood is surprising given that the broker faced enormous stresses and poor public perception last week. In addition, Robinhood was forced to tap credit lines and received $1 billion from current investors while countering rumors that its decision to limit trading of GameStop and other stocks was somehow nefarious. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and other legislators wrote on Twitter that Congress should look deeper into Robinhood’s actions. Robinhood said on Monday that it had raised another $2.4 billion from its investors, for a total of $3.4 billion. The investment round was led by Ribbit Capital, with existing investors including Iconiq, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Index Ventures, and NEA also taking part.

Robinhood explained in a blog post that those limits were based on demands from its clearinghouse that it put up more collateral based on the volume of trades going through its system. Its deposit requirements spiked to 10 times the normal number, according to a blog post that Robinhood put out.

JMP securities analyst Devin Ryan wrote in a report on Monday that Robinhood appears to have been downloaded 550,000 times on Wednesday and over 600,000 times on Thursday. On Friday, it was 300,000 times.

Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak sentenced to 12 years in prison

Malaysia’s High Court on Tuesday found Najib Razak guilty on all seven charges of money laundering, abuse of power and criminal breach of trust in the first case in a series of sovereign fund-linked corruption trials against him. 

Photo via @Reuters

• Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak served as the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2009 to 2018. 
• Born: July 23, 1953 (age 67 years), Malaysia
• The former prime minister was voted out in a historic 2018 election amid public anger over allegations that $4.5 billion was stolen in a global scheme from the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) fund.

Background

- 1MDB was set up in 2009 and raised billions of dollars in bonds for use in investment projects

- The US Department of Justice said $4.5 billion was diverted to offshore bank accounts

- Malaysian authorities say at least $4.3 billion more is unaccounted for and that Razak illegally received more than $1 billion

- The verdict comes only days after Goldman Sachs reached a $3.9 billion settlement with Malaysia in return of dropping criminal charges against the bank

(Source: Reuters)

Cboe puts HQ up for sale; will move to the Old Post Office?

Chicago options exchange company Cboe Global Markets has put its South Loop headquarters building up for sale after announcing earlier this year that it was considering a move.

Chief Financial Officer Brian Schell told analysts on a conference call this morning that the company expects to relocate by about the middle of next year.

The company’s plan to move to a new Chicago address follows Cboe’s 2016 acquisition of Bats Global Markets and subsequent merger, which shifted some work south to the onetime Bats headquarters in suburban Kansas City. The Bats exchange was fully electronic, while the older Cboe still operates a floor-based exchange in Chicago, as well as electronic exchanges.

Cboe had 842 employees worldwide as of the end of last year, down from 889 at the end of 2017, according to annual filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission. That includes 425 employees in Chicago.

Cboe began construction on the building in the early 1980s and moved into it in 1984. It has 350,000 square feet, though the company occupies only 300,000 square feet, according to recent regulatory filings.

Cboe is the largest U.S. options exchange, though competition to maintain market share is fierce. The company reported today that its net income for the first half of the year fell 11 percent to $178.6 million while revenue declined 15 percent to $1.22 billion.

McCormick (MKC) execs see pay skyrocket in 2018 after record growth

Highest paid CEOs: https://aflcio.org/executive-paywatch/highest-paid-ceos

McCormick & Co. Inc. CEO Lawrence Kurzius received a 64 percent increase in compensation last year as the company experienced record increases in profit and sales from the acquisition of RB Foods. 

Kurzius's pay totaled $14.8 million in 2018, up from $9 million the prior year, according to McCormick's proxy statement filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.