"Bank of Japan emerging as big Japanese stock buyer" and "Central Banks Trade S&P 500 Futures"

"The Bank of Japan ...has stepped up purchases of exchange-traded funds to bring its equities portfolio to an estimated 7 trillion yen ($63.6 billion) or so.

...That figure accounts for 1.5% of the entire market value of all Japanese shares...

...At one point, it snapped up ETFs in six straight sessions amid weak stock prices.

The BOJ tends to make 10 billion yen to 20 billion yen worth of purchases when stock prices fall...

    ...the BOJ may surpass Nippon Life Insurance, the largest private-sector stock holder with some 7 trillion yen in holdings, as early as this year and emerge as the second-biggest shareholder behind the Government Pension Investment Fund -- the national pension fund with 21 trillion yen.

...It is unusual for a central bank to buy stocks and ETFs...

  ...given that the bank's holdings are equal to roughly half the 15 trillion yen in net buying by foreigners last year, large-scale selling would be certain to shake the market.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Markets/Equities/Bank-of-Japan-emerging-as-big-Japanese-stock-buyer
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"...The purpose of this Program is to incentivize Central Banks located outside of the United States to trade the products listed below on the CME Globex® Platform. The resulting increase in liquidity in the products listed below benefits all participant segments in the market...

The Exchanges’ staff identified the following Core Principles as potentially being impacted; Prevention of Market Disruption, Execution of Transactions, Protection of [the biggest] Market Participants and Compliance with Rules and Record Keeping.

...The Exchanges’ market regulation staff will monitor trading in the Program’s products to prevent manipulative trading and market abuse.

Would love to see the compliance file.

Product Scope; All CME, CBOT, and NYMEX futures and options contracts available for trading on the CME Globex Platform, and all COMEX futures products available for trading on the CME Globex® Platform (“Products”).

Eligible Participants

There is no limit to the number of participants that may participate in the Program.

All non-U.S. central banks may apply for participation.

Start date is July 1, 2013. End date is December 31, 2014.

The Exchanges shall monitor trading activity and participants’ performance"...

Meaning the Exchanges know how much of what 

has been traded by whom, and when. 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-30/its-settled-central-banks-trade-sp500-futures

http://www.cftc.gov/stellent/groups/public/@rulesandproducts/documents/ifdocs/rul012914cmecbotnymexandcomex1.pdf


http://sirt.cftc.gov/sirt/sirt.aspx?Topic=TradingOrganizationRulesAD&Key=28693
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