But Koutoulas is incensed by a CFTC proposal to beef up customer protection by requiring those who trade on margin to post 20% of their positions, up from 10% now. The rule’s intent is to protect customers from the risk that other customers won’t make good on their margin calls. Perhaps, Koutoulas says, the 20% rule should be enforced on high-frequency traders, who “in a couple of minutes, with a rogue algorithm, can blow up an FCM,” but not on farmers and other retail customers, who are being asked to “double down” on the money they have at risk at FCMs.
Category: Profiles
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Hedge- fund manager an impassioned advocate for commodities customers
Koutoulas quickly rallied thousands of customers using social media. It was a voice filled with idealism that the people who harmed investors would be held accountable. On CNBC appearances, Koutoulas said things that many were afraid to say publicly. He called Corzine a criminal, suggested that the head of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission should step down and criticized giant investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. for apparent conflicts of interest in the bankruptcy case.
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Brash commodities trader shakes up MF Global case
He was surprised when his efforts gained attention and other customers sought to join forces, quickly making him the de facto advocate for nearly all customers as head of the grassroots Commodity Customer Coalition. But Koutoulas plays down the “boy wonder” label he’s picked up from cohorts. “Alexander the Great was commanding 48,000 troops at 24,” the former University of Florida classics scholar told Reuters in an interview at Typhon’s New York office. “It’s not like I’m going to war,” he said, sitting in Typhon’s conference room. “Guys go to war at 18.”
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You Want Real Change in the Financial Industry? I suggest you keep an eye on James Koutoulas
If you talk to Koutoulas, it becomes clear very quickly that the main Goliath to his David right now is JPMorgan. “Their hands are on every aspect of this case,” he told me. He went on to explain that JPMorgan was the custodian for MF Global’s segregated customer funds and the company’s biggest lender. He also has concerns that the bank got preferential treatment in its purchase of European sovereign debt and a stake in the London Metals Exchange from the MF Global estate. And now JPMorgan is swooping in as a vulture investor, offering to buy funds claims from customers at a significant discount. The phrase “conflict of interest” hardly seems sufficient to describe JPMorgan’s involvement.
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Meet James Koutoulas, The Man Who Never Wanted To Be A Lawyer But Now Fights For 8,000 MF Global Customers
Consistently in the backdrop has been Koutoulas—an enduring presence at bankruptcy trials and Congressional hearings, a knowledgeable voice cited within the pages of major news publications and a stoic figure that represents over 8,000 wronged MF Global clients, pro-bono.
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The Boy Wonder of the MF Global Nightmare
My goal is real simple: getting everybody’s money back,” he says. “And I think we have a very high likelihood of doing just that.” In early November, Koutoulas, along with fellow Chicago futures trader, John Roe – son of Tennessee Republican congressman Dr. Phil Roe – founded the Commodity Customer Coalition, a grassroots group that seeks to represent the complex legal interests of MF Global’s former clients. In the space of just a few weeks, the group has amassed more than 8,000 members, received tens of thousands of dollars of donations and singlehandedly proven that enough people, when banded together, can change the course of a multibillion-dollar bankruptcy.