Derivs - Equity

A novel collar strategy from Société Générale that involves an enhanced covered call and put protection scheme, is seeing increased interest from corporate pension funds in Europe.

David Lucerne, an executive director in equity derivatives trading at Morgan Stanley in New York, has joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch as a senior equity single stock trader, also in New York.

Peter Lindsey, managing director and head of delta 1 for Asia at JPMorgan in Hong Kong, has left the firm.

Voting is now open for the Global Derivatives Survey, a comprehensive customer ranking of derivatives sellsiders in the credit, equity, fx, interest rate and structured products markets. The survey, from Derivatives Intelligence & Derivatives Week, will poll institutional and retail investors from the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific across multiple asset classes.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, pursuant to the Dodd Frank Act, has implemented rules which require that all swap counterparties report and keep record of certain swap data.

Demand for hybrid structured products among institutional and private wealth management investors in Asia Pacific is on the rise as continued low interest rates are forcing buyers to look to multiple asset classes to generate yield.

UBS Securities in mainland China has privately placed USD30 million in notional of an at-the-money up-and-out structured product that references the Shanghai Stock Exchange 50 Index.

A number of investors in Japan are choosing to close some call positions on the Nikkei that have reached their strike prices, instead of rolling the options, in order to take large profits as the equity markets there continue to rise.

Institutional investors and hedge funds are increasingly looking at entering into option spread strategies as a way to play the volatility spread between the Kospi and the S&P 500.

Dominique Blanchard, former managing director and global head of derivatives and convertible bonds at Daiwa Capital Markets in Hong Kong, has joined ANZ.

New issues of structured products at the Scoach exchange in Switzerland reached 4,546 in April, a significant increase in new issuances compared to 3,286 products in March, according to the Swiss Structured Products Association’s latest report.

GFI Group has acquired assets from equity and credit interdealer broker Phoenix Partners Group, which includes a team of 32 brokers based in London and New York.