Derivs - Equity

Option premiums on the U.S. dollar against emerging market currencies are becoming more expensive as EM economies stay under the spotlight and geopolitical tensions related to Syria escalate. Liquidity in the options market has also deteriorated as a result.

Kevin Walker, the former partner and head of multi-asset sales to pension funds and insurance companies at Goldman Sachs in London, is set to join Citigroup in a new role.

Tullett Prebon has filed an application to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to become a swap execution facility under Dodd-Frank, three weeks after the final SEF rules became effective.

Options and exchange-traded funds may have been priced incorrectly when trading of NASDAQ-listed securities was halted for over three hours earlier today.

Hedge funds have been piling in to butterfly call spreads on the VIX following option expiries on the index on Wednesday. The structure of the trades, which position for the VIX to remain around the middle strike price, limit the risk of loss since investors can only lose their initial investment.

Multi-strategy and volatility arbitrage hedge funds are increasingly targeting dispersion trades referencing Japanese single stocks and sector based baskets or indices, in a bid to short correlation should Japanese equities start to rally.

StormHarbour Securities has hired Magnus Orgard, the former European head of solutions and derivative sales at WestLB, to work in the firm’s client solutions team in London.

Andrew Line, ex-equity derivatives and structuring salesman at HSBC in New York, has joined Citigroup, also in New York.

Investors in Japan bought large amounts of short-dated way out-the-money downside put options on Japanese indices Wednesday morning, which dragged the market lower before an intraday rally ended the session higher.

A recent spike in selling upside skew on the Nikkei 225 has subsided after the short-end upside skew in the index flattened.

Gabriel Lettieri, ex-director in equity derivatives sales at Barclays in New York, will be joining Deutsche Bank in the same role, also in New York.

Rothschild Wealth Management has been entering into puts on the S&P 500 as a hedge against the U.S. market.