Ed’s Daily Notes for March 11th

Bloomberg: Virtu Filing Shines Light on Business of High-Frequency Trading

Want to own one of the Hal 9000 companies mucking up the markets? Here is another chance:

Virtu Financial Inc., the New York-based automated market maker that tried and failed to buy Knight Capital Group Inc. in 2012, filed for an initial public offering yesterday, disclosing that it had earned money every day but one in the last five years. The company is throwing open its books about a year after Getco LLC, another computerized trader, detailed its financial results for the first time while merging with Knight to form KCG (KCG) Holdings Inc.

As mentioned in the article, KCG is already available if you are interested. While it is a little cheap (price/book of 0.93), it isn’t “Load up the kids and the dog Martha, we’re heading to the market!” cheap. But it could be worthy of a spot on your watchlist.

Bloomberg: Asian Stocks Rebound as Phone Companies Gain; Lynas Sinks

Two interesting things to note in the article above.

First, it was only natural Asian stocks would rebound after yesterday’s drop. However, I won’t say they have bottomed yet. China still has a ton of issues to iron out, not the least of which is the end of the Federal Reserve’s QE this year, which will pull the liquidity rug right out from under their economy.

Second:

Lynas tumbled 8.5 percent to 27 Australian cents in Sydney. The company posted a first-half pre-tax loss of A$59.3 million ($54 million) compared with a loss of A$54.5 million a year ago. The company said additional funding may be needed over the next 12 months to boost liquidity.

Lynas is one of the best positioned rare earth companies in the world, yet even they are suffering. That gives you a solid idea of the rare earth markets right now.