Derivs - Equity

Société Générale has hired Ben Cobain, an ex-director in equity volatility trading at the Royal Bank of Scotland in London, in the same role also in London.

Technically, Uridashi is an autocallable with two barriers and tenors usually from three to five years. The lower barrier is usually struck between 50% to 70% of the initial spot and continuously observed, at which point investors sell the down-in puts to the issuers. The upper barrier is struck at 105%-110% of the initial spot, which is the knock-out or autocall level, observed discretely at every 6-month pre-determined observation dates.

Should derivatives regulation differ between provinces in Canada, then it could result in market participants having to comply with rules in more than one province and disincentivize dealers from transacting with counterparties based in Canada, according to market participants. Regulators in Canada, however, are aiming for the provincial rules to be identical.

Investors should consider buying one-year accumulators with a knock-out feature on Japanese stocks that could potentially benefit from Tokyo’s successful Olympics bid.

Hedge funds are selling December upside calls on India’s CNX Nifty index with 108 strikes in order to fund the purchase of downside put spreads with strikes ranging between 95-and-80.

Obtaining high-quality assets to use as collateral may be destructive to the markets in which they are being used and they’ll be costly to get hold of, according to Michael Clarke, managing director at Goldman Sachs.

The market needs to ensure greater margin efficiency for buyside firms to produce returns for their clients, while the introduction of swap execution facilities is leaving buysiders with greater risk, according to Richard Prager, board member at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and head of global trading at BlackRock.

Long/short hedge funds are unwinding their long call option positions on specific Japanese sectors that are expected to benefit from Tokyo’s successful bid for the 2020 International Summer Olympic Games.

Kin Cheung, head of trading and deputy head of equities at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong, has left the firm.

Leith Assouad, a senior portfolio manager at Brevan Howard in Geneva, has left the firm. He specialized in equity derivatives.

Systemically important persons that trade over-the-counter derivatives could need to register with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and comply with subsequent regulations should their OTC derivative position reach a certain threshold.

Standard Chartered is finding corporate takers for structured products that use the premium from selling fx options to participate in equity options—a novel play for that type of investor.