Derivs - Equity

Benga Sofoluwe, the ex-head of securities lending and origination at hedge fund EQI Asset Management in London, is joining Citigroup in Hong Kong.

The London Stock Exchange is seeing increased interest in its Italian dividend futures offering, predicting further growth in the instrument over the next 12 months.

Regulators won’t be able to use data collected from trade repositories to spot risk straight away, market participants say. The deadline for mandatory trade reporting under European Markets Infrastructure Regulation passed on Wednesday.

Investors should enter a March/June/September calendar fly on the Nikkei 225, selling a June 2014–September 2014 call calendar at a 2:1 ratio with a 16,000 strike and buying a March 2014 16,000 call to mitigate the gamma.

Deutsche Bank is advising investors to enter into conditional outperformance options on the Eurostoxx against the S&P 500

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has hired Gage Olcott, the ex-head of U.S. retail sales within Citigroup’s cross asset group in New York, as a managing director and head of U.S. structured products, also in New York.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has hired Alan Skandan, the former global head of equity derivative sales, hedge funds and alternative asset managers, at Crédit Agricole CIB, as a managing director in equity derivative sales in New York.

Bank of American Merrill Lynch and Koris International, a financial advisory firm, have launched a UCITS fund, the Merrill Lunch Dynamic Capital Protection UCITS fund.

Senior market participants expect the electronification of the structured products market to gather pace over the next five years. Lower trading limits and innovations, such as smart phone applications, are expected to lure new entrants.

Greg Kuppenheimer, head of U.S. equity derivatives sales at Deutsche Bank in New York, has left the firm.

Edward Pailthorpe, an ex-director in equity derivatives trading at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London, has joined Morgan Stanley in a similar role, also in London.

80 Capital has opened its Helium strategy, which involves trading global managed futures, to external investors after acquiring USD50 million in seed capital from Deutsche Bank.