SmarterMarkets™

We continue Gold for the 21st Century this week with Don Casturo, Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Quantix Commodities. David Greely sits down with Don to discuss the role of gold in protecting investors' portfolios, the drivers of recent gold market performance, and how de-dollarization is changing the way gold trades relative to other assets.

We present a Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from the FT Commodities Global Summit 2025.

SmarterMarkets™ returned to the annual Financial Times Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland this March, where commodity traders get together to talk about the markets and how they’re navigating them. In retrospect, this year was the calm before the storm of the wide-ranging U.S. tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

We partnered with the FT to once again interview commodities markets participants to ask them about the big developments being discussed at the conference this year. We also discussed the ways that markets and market infrastructure need to change to keep pace with the changing commodities trading landscape and what tools and technologies they need most.

We've compiled a selection of those interviews into this Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™ with an introduction by Leslie Hook, Natural Resources Editor for the Financial Times.

If you would like to listen to the full interviews, they are available on the SmarterMarkets™ Presents media portal.

Our guests in order of appearance in this episode are:

Leslie Hook – Natural Resources Editor, FT

Helima Croft – Managing Director and Global Head of Commodity Strategy, RBC Capital Markets

Mark Kristoff – CEO, Traxys

Fernanda Ávila – Congresswoman & Former Secretary of Mining, Ministry of Economy, Argentina

JP Aubin – Co-CEO, BGC Group

Sacha Lifschitz – Head of Battery Materials, Abaxx Exchange

This week on Gold for the 21st Century, we welcome Wade Brennan, CEO & Co-Founder of Kilo Capital, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Wade to discuss the effects of the recent tariff-related price volatility and pricing dislocations on the users of gold, as well as the role of bullion banking in the gold market of the 21st century.

We continue Gold for the 21st Century this week with Sunil Kashyap, Managing Director at FinMet Pte Ltd., Singapore. David Greely sits down with Sunil to discuss the role of gold in Asia, what the West can learn from it, and what new market infrastructure and technology can lead to smarter gold markets in Asia for the 21st century.

We present a special mid-week episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from FIA’s BOCA50 – the International Futures Industry Conference.

SmarterMarkets™ returned to FIA Boca to be a part of BOCA50, the 50th anniversary of the International Futures Industry Conference. We partnered with the FIA to interview a wide-range of futures industry participants.

We asked them how long they’ve been coming to Boca, how the conference has evolved, and what keeps them coming back. We also asked them to share with us the big topics and issues they were at Boca this year to discuss with others and what new derivatives products and financial technology they were most excited about. 

We’ve compiled a selection of those 9 interviews into this Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™. If you would like to listen to the full interviews, they are available on the SmarterMarkets™ Presents media portal.

Our guests in order of appearance in this episode are:

Walt Lukken, President & CEO, FIA

Alun Green, EVP, Managing Director, Futures & Options, Trading Technologies

Stuart Connolly, CEO, CloudMargin

Thomas Texier, Head of Clearing, Marex

Travis Schwab, CEO, Eventus

Ryan Moroney, CEO, CQG

Anthony Crudele, SVP, NinjaTrader

Alan Guarino, Vice Chairman, Korn Ferry

Joe Raia, Chief Commercial Officer, Abaxx Exchange & Clearinghouse

This week, we kick off our new series Gold for the 21st Century with David Gornall. Gornall is Strategic Advisor for Precious Metals at Abaxx Exchange, Former Global Head of Precious Metals Trading at Natixis, and Former Chairman of the LBMA.

SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Gornall to discuss where gold market infrastructure is not keeping pace with the evolving use of gold, what it means for regional price discovery and trading, and what market infrastructure and regulatory changes are needed to allow gold to take its seat at the financial table and meet the demand for gold in the 21st century.

We wrap up Carbon Frontiers 2025 this week with Belinda Ellington, Principal at Ellington Resolution, Senior Advisor at IETA, and Former MD, Global Head of Commodities Legal at Citi. David Greely sits down with Belinda to discuss the challenges that banks face in carbon markets and sustainable finance – and why establishing the legal nature of verified carbon credits is a critical step to getting carbon finance flowing

This week on Carbon Frontiers 2025, we welcome back Peter Fusaro, Founder of the Wall Street Green Summit. David Greely sits down with Peter to discuss where we are in carbon markets and the energy transition – and the other big issues on the agenda as we head into the 24th annual Wall Street Green Summit in New York City on March 18-19.

We continue Carbon Frontiers 2025 this week with Rene Velasquez, Managing Partner at Valitera. David Greely sits down with Rene to discuss the ‘tale of two cities’ state of the carbon markets – and the challenges and opportunities in getting carbon finance flowing.

This week on Carbon Frontiers 2025, we welcome back Peter Zaman, Partner at HFW Singapore. David Greely sits down with Peter to discuss the impact of the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and how the rest of the world's response, whether ideological or pragmatic, will determine the path forward. They also talk about the need for a greater focus on adaptation and managing climate risk in a world where climate action is going to be slower and take longer to make meaningful change.