Derivs - Equity

Cantor Fitzgerald has strengthened its global equities and fixed income teams with several hires, including Diego Baez as managing director of Latin American equities and Francisco Romero as managing director in the debt capital markets' emerging markets division.

Deutsche Bank has added to its North America equities business with the hiring of managing director Joseph Spinelli as head of North America ash equity trading, Brad Kurtzman as head of quantitative trading, and Jeff Christian and Jonathan Simon for equity derivatives sales.

BTG Pactual has hired Philippe Mathieu, an ex-equity trader at Nomura, as a portfolio manager in London.

BNP Paribas has hired Andrew Tyler as a v.p. in equity derivative sales focusing on hedge funds in New York starting May 14.

BlackRock favors electronic trading models that use requests for quotes for trading derivatives, rather than central limit order book models, because there is currently greater access to liquidity.

Department of Labor rules regarding prohibited transactions and fiduciary obligations will make it tough for swap dealers to clear over-the-counter swaps for pension plans under Dodd-Frank if guidance or exemptions are not provided. Implementation is slated for November and DoL often acts with glacial speed, which has the industry very concerned.

Security Benefit Life has teamed up with the Royal Bank of Scotland to market uncapped returns of the RBS Annuity Linked TVI Index, a multi-asset index with a volatility control mechanism.

Exchange-traded calls are being bought and puts sold on Morgan Stanley stock, despite rumors the firm might receive a credit rating cut in mid-June from Moody’s Investors Service.

Société Générale plans to launch four equity-linked structured products in Hong Kong. The structures, which can use so-called airbag features, will be linked to single stocks.

New anti-tax avoidance rules in India could snare foreign investors and dealers active in the country’s over-the-counter and offshore equity derivatives market.

U.S. equities are poised to decorrelate from Chinese and Brazilian equities, say strategists at BNP Paribas, and investors can capitalize by buying calls on individual indices and selling calls on a basket of all three.

Credit Suisse has launched Advanced Strategy Fund to Japanese institutional investors and domestic funds.