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To: Les H who wrote (17763)	1/10/2018 12:19:28 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 49808

Study: Metformin Linked to Higher Risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diabetesdaily.com Dr. Kuan told Medscape they adjusted for age, sex, and diabetes severity and that despite this, “the cumulative incidences of Parkinson’s and dementia were significantly higher for our metformin cohort” at 12 years. In fact, the risk for Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s dementia went up over 50 percent during a 12 year period in those who took metformin when compared to those who did not. Researchers also found that “outcome risks increased progressively with higher dosage and longer duration of treatment.” Dr. Yi-Chun Kuan said, “We’d heard about a possible protective effect from metformin. However, we found the reverse,” and she added that large-scale, prospective studies would need to be done in other countries to get clarification of the results. Another detail the researchers noted was that outcomes increased the longer a patient was on metformin and the higher the metformin dose they took, “especially with use for more than 300 days and doses greater than 240 g.”

To: Les H who wrote (17763)	1/11/2018 12:51:54 PM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 49808

Goldman Sachs Calls The Growth of Inverse VIX Exchange Traded Products 'Worriesome' January 11, 2018 Goldman Sachs derivatives analyst Rocky Fishman relayed concerns regarding the potential impact that short VIX ETPs positions could have on inverse and levered product flows should the VIX futures rise. Fishman wrote to clients early Thursday morning that he has no concerns about the net number of shorts but is concerned about the impact a sudden rise in the VIX futures would have on derivative products. He notes that over the past few weeks net positioning in VIX ETPs has gone short for only the second time in their eight year history. The analyst believes “the potential for short and levered ETPs to start buying VIX futures quickly on a sudden vol spike has grown” which in turn makes short-date VIX-based hedges timely. As for what worries Fishman, well, he goes on to comment “the size of inverse and levered ETPs in the aggregate is important, though, and the growth of inverse VIX ETP products is worrisome” as he reminds clients that VIX ETPs account for about $5 billion AUM which is peanuts compared to the broad market but in the derivatives market “ETPs are large.” As an example Fishman writes to clients “The XIV and SVXY short products alone represent over 40% of the open interest of first two month VIX futures, and the gross size of VIX ETPs tracking the first two VIX futures represents more than 100% of the open interest of the first two VIX futures.” Therefore, his biggest concern is a one-day, end-of-day vol spike should the SPX selloff near the end of the trading day which would push issuers to replace positions quickly to avoid being exposed to unhedged overnight risk or excessive tracking error. Fishman also notes that Asset Managers and Institutions appear most at risk as they have recently started reporting short VIX futures positions. Perhaps we should just hope that there won't be a negative market headline in the final minutes of any trading day anytime soon but should any of our readers wish to know the derivatives analyst would prepare for something jarring in the short term, Fishman suggests that client buy February 18-strike VIX call versus selling April 18-strike VIX calls with an intention to close the trade before the February 14 expiry.