Derivs - Equity

UBS has seen its exchange traded note program assets more than double in just over a year. The program had approximately $2bn at the end of July 2013 and now has around $4.5bn.

The Singapore Exchange has reported a 4% increase in derivatives revenues year-on-year in its first quarter results for the 2015 fiscal year. Derivatives volumes at the exchange were up 9% to 28.8 mn contracts.

Steven Maijoor, chairman of the European Securities Markets Association, has emphasised the importance of a single rulebook in the EU, calling for single rulebook regulation to be applied consistently to ensure differences in supervision do not threaten financial stability in the region.

Institutional investors have been buying VIX call options with October expiries to express a bullish and long volatility view, following a slew of VIX calls that were sold when the market was down Tuesday.

Access to clearing houses for the buyside may increasingly become limited as some clearing members, known as futures commissions merchants in the US, are struggling to turn a profit on their clearing offerings. This has resulted in some firms exiting such business entirely, and limiting the FCM’s with which buysiders can clear with.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange saw record volumes for futures that were traded on both the CBOE Futures Exchange and CBOE Volatility Index following an increase in market volatility.

Euronext plans to start offering Dutch and Belgian equity options to eligible US investors following notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission of new class no-action relief for foreign options markets.

New York-based boutique financial services firm Exceed Investment is preparing a first quarter 2015 launch of exchange-traded and mutual funds on its latest range of beta indices, which are based on structured notes that track the S&P 500.

Denver-based financial boutique IPS Strategic Capital is readying a novel out-the-money iron condor trade on the ProShares Short Volatility Index Short Term Futures Exchange Traded Fund, as a short term hedge against S&P500 drawdowns of between 5%-6%.

Index provider FTSE Group and Research Affiliates have jointly launched a low volatility series of benchmarks that can be used as underlyings for structured products and other financial instruments.

Samuel Rosenberg, the ex-global head of financial engineering at Newedge in New York, has joined Natixis, also based in New York.

New York-based financial boutique Exceed Investments is looking to launch a set of defined-outcome indexes based on structured investments that will give exposure to the S&P500.