Equity markets
Société Générale unveils 143 covered warrants and 15 turbos in UK
Société Générale (SG) has released a range of 143 covered warrants tracking the FTSE indexes and major commodities, as well as 15 turbos based on UK equities. The newly-launched covered warrants boost the total number of issues to 194 in two weeks by SG…
Treasury called to account for Tarp
The US Treasury has failed to provide oversight of vital parts of its $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (Tarp), according to a report issued today by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Thai bourse plans to add an ETF and derivative warrants
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (Set) aims to introduce an exchange-traded fund (ETF), derivative warrants, gold futures and an Islamic fund in 2009, as well as boost retail and institutional investor numbers. Set also intends on being listed by 2011, as…
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The Volkswagen squeeze
Equity Derivatives
Gambling on dividends
Dividends have caused sizeable losses for dealers and investors over the past few months, as a precipitous fall in expectations has hit structured product issuers and those who participated in dividend swaps. Mark Pengelly investigates
Government takes majority stake in RBS
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is now majority owned by the government after receiving a £20 billion bailout.
Popular volatility indexes plunge
Record high levels of volatility in the equity market since September have caused huge losses on popular indexes that allowed investors to take short implied volatility positions.
US government still has room to manoeuvre, analysts say
The US government's move to rescue beleaguered banking giant Citigroup will not impair its ability to bail out other banks.
$20 billion bail-out for Citi
The US government has given Citigroup a lifeline via a $20 billion direct capital injection and a guarantee for $306 billion in securities.
Investors approve RBS' £19.7 billion capital raising plan
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) gained overwhelming investor support for raising £19.7 billion in preference shares at an extraordinary general meeting yesterday, in which the chairman apologised for the bank's poor financial performance this year.
Brazilian equity reverse convertible coupons soar
Annualised coupons offered on three-month reverse convertibles linked to Brazilian blue-chip stocks have soared over the past few months because of the extreme equity volatility environment. A reverse convertible priced in January last year on Vale do…
Barclays Wealth launches protected series
Barclays Wealth has launched a new range of protected investments that will be available until January 9 2009: a five-year regular income bond linked to the DJ Stoxx 50 index of European supersector stocks offers a fixed annual income of 7.75% or a…
Treasury and Fed help AIG lay-off CDO risk
AIG was shored up by a restructuring plan hammered out by the US Treasury and Federal Reserve Bank of New York today, which involved the creation of an off-balance-sheet vehicle to neutralise some of the insurer’s hefty collateralised debt obligation …
Trades on the rise but volumes suffer in Switzerland
The number of structured product and warrant trades on the Swiss structured product exchange, Scoach broke all previous records in October, despite a 13% fall in the volume of Swiss franc issuance. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a separate category from…
November target for CDS central counterparty
Dealers have pledged to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to begin using a central counterparty for clearing credit derivatives by the end of November.
Hedge funds harness volatility in turbulent markets
Trading volatility can help hedge funds to diversify their portfolios and generate alpha in a challenging market. Kris Devasabai and Stephen Quigley report on the strategies employed by volatility traders and its emergence as an asset class
CTAs find a profitable course in risky waters
CTA/managed futures funds have been the top performers in the hedge fund world this year. US Editor Kris Devasabai and reporters Stephen Quigley and Jamie Wynn-Williams analyse the risks facing the funds and investors in a volatile market
