Treasury's FinCEN cuts crypto exchange MEXC Global off from the US financial system
FinCEN says MEXC Global facilitated at least $16 billion in illicit transactions linked to Iranian, North Korean and Russian sanctions evasion and cybercrime. The order takes effect 30 days after Federal Register publication.
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FINRA fines Webull $4.2 million over anti-money laundering and best execution failures
FINRA says Webull approved more than 120,000 accounts without reasonably verifying identities, missed suspicious activity and failed to review execution quality. The firm settled without admitting or denying the findings.
Markets digest, 5 November 2026: Nasdaq and Dow fall, Bitcoin drops and the CFTC targets geographic limits on contract markets
The Nasdaq Composite closed at 24,315.000 and the Dow at 51,523.06, both lower. Bitcoin ended at $76,152.52, and the CFTC issued an interpretation on exchange access.
Treasury sanctions four people and 41 entities in the Prince Group scam network
OFAC widened its action against the Prince Group, which it links to digital asset investment scams, and separately sanctioned a Malaysian individual it says ran scammers in Madagascar.
US jobs report, October 2026: payrolls rise 165,000, unemployment 4.1%
BLS data show employers added 165,000 jobs in October, unemployment changed little at 4.1%, and August and September payrolls were revised up by a combined 84,000.
Our markets
All guides
Stocks & Options
US stocks, ETFs and listed options: how orders are filled, margin and day-trading rules, payment for order flow and the SEC and FINRA rules behind them.
Crypto
Bitcoin, ether and the wider crypto market: exchanges, derivatives, custody, stablecoins and regulation.
Futures & Prop Firms
Futures, micro contracts and options on futures, and the prop firms that sell trading evaluations: margin, expiry, fees and what the CFTC says.
Prediction Markets
Event contracts on elections, sports and the economy: the CFTC's rules, the exchanges that list them and the states that object.
Metals & Macro
Gold, silver, oil and the macro calendar: Fed decisions, CPI and jobs reports, and how they move metals, energy and the dollar.
International Markets
Forex and CFDs, and the regulators outside the US: sessions, swaps, leverage limits and the broker models behind the quotes.
Prediction markets
All coverage
Economic event contracts: how prediction markets on the Fed, CPI, jobs and GDP settle
Contracts on Fed decisions and US data pay $1 or nothing, settled on the official figure as it stands at expiration. How revisions and delays are handled, and how prices compare with fed funds futures.
How to read an event contract before you trade it: the terms, the fees and the CFTC filing
Every event contract on a CFTC-regulated exchange has written terms filed with the regulator. What to look for in them, from the settlement source to fees and position limits, and where to find the filing.
Prediction markets explained: how event contracts work, how the CFTC regulates them and why states object
An event contract pays $1 if something happens and nothing if it doesn't, so its price reads as a probability. How such contracts are listed, priced and regulated, and where the legal fight stands.
Insider trading in prediction markets: the US rules on event contracts, and the cases so far
Trading an event contract on misappropriated information, or on an outcome you control, can break federal law and exchange rules. What applies, what regulators have flagged, and the cases brought in 2026.
Guides & analysis
Markets
What a liquidity provider does, and why it matters to traders
Between a retail trader's click and the interbank market sits a chain of banks, prime brokers, aggregators and bridges. Understanding that chain explains a lot about spreads, fills and rejections.
Crypto custody explained: how exchanges and custodians hold your coins
Who holds the private keys, what segregation means on-chain and in law, what EU and New York rules require, and what the FTX and Celsius failures showed customers.
How options work: calls, puts, exercise, assignment and the risks of 0DTE
An option is a right to buy or sell at a fixed price until a set date. Here is how calls, puts, premium and strike work, how exercise and assignment run through the OCC, and what regulators flag about 0DTE.
How to read a CPI report: headline vs core, monthly vs annual, and why markets react
The US consumer price index arrives as a page of percentages. Here is what headline and core mean, why the monthly and 12-month figures can disagree, and how the UK and euro area versions differ.
How US futures prop firms work: evaluations, simulated accounts, fees and the regulators
A futures prop firm sells an evaluation, not a job. How challenges, resets and drawdown rules work, what funded usually means, where data fees and payouts come from, and where US regulators stand.
Micro futures explained: contract sizes, tick values, margin and fees
Micro futures are smaller versions of standard CME Group contracts. What each main micro is worth per tick, how exchange and day-trading margin differ, what you pay per contract, and why the risks don't shrink.
US regulation & enforcement
Enforcement tracker
Court orders Texas man and his firm to pay over $13 million in CFTC commodity pool fraud case
A federal court in Texas has entered a default judgment against Walter Dunning Larrick III and Cambridge Financial Advisors LLC, finding they took more than $3 million from participants in a sham commodity pool.
SEC concludes case against five US citizens tied to overseas boiler rooms that sold fake investments
A New York federal court entered a final judgment against Daniel T. Wellcome Jr. on October 9, the last in an SEC case over boiler rooms that sold investors fake exchange-listed investments.
SEC charges adviser who allegedly held leveraged and inverse ETFs for elderly clients for an average of 798 days
The SEC says South Carolina adviser Cary Urich put 54 mostly elderly clients into leveraged and inverse ETFs and held them for years, against prospectus warnings. He has agreed to settle.
SEC settles with Connecticut man over alleged day trading fund fraud and Ponzi-like payments
Bran Crudden and Transparent Equity Entrepreneurs allegedly raised more than $645,000 from about twenty-three retail investors for a day trading fund and pre-IPO funds. They agreed to settle, subject to court approval.
The sections
Markets
Stocks, crypto, futures and options, commodities, metals and FX: guides and analysis on how each market actually works.
81 articles →Traders & Educators
Profiles of traders, mentors and educators, and how they work.
39 articles →Brokers
Stock brokers, crypto exchanges, futures, CFD and FX brokers: regulation, execution and the people running them.
26 articles →Liquidity & Tech
Liquidity providers, exchanges, crypto infrastructure, platforms and the plumbing behind every trade.
44 articles →Traders & Educators
All profiles
FCA survey finds young investors miss the pressure tactics used to sell investments
Only 36% of UK 18 to 40-year-olds said a 'last chance to buy' pitch would make them more cautious, and 37% said it would push them to buy quickly, the FCA found.
SEC charges BG Wealth and DSJ Exchange over $130 million crypto signals scheme built on false SEC filings
The SEC alleges two Colorado-incorporated entities raised more than $130 million from retail investors with promised risk-free crypto trading returns and fake proof of SEC registration.
SEC charges DEBT Box partners over alleged $200 million crypto offering fraud
The SEC sued Blox Lending, Jason R. Anderson, Digital Licensing Inc. and two of its principals, alleging DEBT Box sold crypto assets backed by royalties that never existed. Three defendants have agreed to settle.
SFC takes Taste•Gourmet executives to tribunal over alleged share price manipulation
Hong Kong's SFC alleges three executives and five associates propped up the GEM-listed company's shares to meet the market value needed for a move to the Main Board.
Where the industry works
New York
Home of the NYSE and Nasdaq, and of US stock and options trading
Chicago
Where US futures and options are traded and cleared
London
The world's largest FX trading centre
Limassol
Home to many retail CFD brokers
Dubai
Fast-growing hub for MENA brokers
Singapore
Asia's leading FX centre
Hong Kong
Gateway to Greater China
Panama City
A base for Latin American business
São Paulo
Latin America's largest market
Mexico City
A growing retail trading audience
Bangkok
Part of South-East Asia's retail boom
Zurich
Private banking and prime brokerage
Recognition your clients can verify
Twelve categories for brokers, liquidity providers, prop firms and educators, judged on published criteria and never on payment.
From the archive
All years
The Tulipomania
Charles Mackay's chapter on the Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s, from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841): the boom, the crash and the rescue that never came.
The Cycles of Speculation
Chapter II of Thomas Gibson's The Cycles of Speculation (1907): why stock prices top out before business does, a roll-call of American crises from 1814 to 1903, and the ten-year rhythm of greed and folly.
The Speculative Cycle
Chapter I of G. C. Selden's Psychology of the Stock Market (1912), tracing the typical cycle from a dull, neglected market through the public's rush to buy, the top, and the slide back to lethargy.
Where Buyers and Sellers of Sugar Meet
From B. W. Dyer's 1921 booklet for sugar wholesalers, written as refined sugar futures began trading in New York: how an exchange sets a price, shifts risk to speculators and why the broker's strength matters.