Derivs - Equity

Cantor Fitzgerald has hired James Smyth as managing director and head of its retail equity-broker-dealer group.

Large inflows into VIX-related exchange-traded products are amplifying distortions in VIX short-term futures prices, and market participants are pitching ways to take advantage and wondering whether the distortion might become a problem.

Money managers looking to arbitrage volatility dislocations should short front-month VIX futures via deep in-the-money puts to cash in on the negative performance of long VIX futures rolls put on by other institutions in the market, said Krag Gregory, equity derivatives strategist at Goldman Sachs in a presentation at the Chicago Board Options Exchange Risk Management Conference in Bonita Springs, Fla., this morning.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange is planning to roll out so-called variance strips, aimed at replicating S&P 500 implied variance.

James Boyle, a former managing director in equity derivatives trading at Citadel in New York, has joined Citigroup in Hong Kong.

BNP Paribas is relocating Remi Paris, an index options trader in London, to its Hong Kong desk in a bid to increase equity trading capabilities in the Asia Pacific region.

Denis MacCarthy, head of global synthetic equities sales at UBS in London, has resigned.

Ali Agboatwalla, a managing director in single stock options trading at Royal Bank of Canada in New York, has left the firm to join Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the same position.

Ilene Froom, an executive director at JPMorgan in New York, has left the firm to join Jones Day, also in New York, as a partner in the firm’s banking and finance practice.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced the new members of its Markets Management Committee who will be responsible for strategy, according to a memo from Peter Nielsen, ceo of markets in London.

Since the beginning of year, we have observed a significant increase in the convexity of the Eurostoxx50 volatility smile, which has accelerated over the last week.

Naysan Munusamy, executive director and non-deliverable forward trader at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, has been let go due to an alleged compliance issue surrounding trades with Macquarie in Singapore.