Derivs - Equity

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission plans to tighten up disclosure rules for providers of over-the-counter derivatives, such as contracts for difference, to retail investors.

Citigroup has started pitching long equity plays to retail and institutional buyers in Asia using a dynamic allocation mechanism that leverages exposure to index performance when volatility is low and reduces exposure when volatility rises.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association is planning to release by month end standardized documentation for pan-Asian interdealer equity swaps—the first set of documents to cover the entire region, including Japan.

Neville Godley, former head of distribution at structured products shop Quantum Asset Management, has joined Morgan Stanley in London as v.p. of retail structured product sales, a new role.

Alex Ellison, the former head of convex equity trading at HSBC in Hong Kong, covering exotic derivatives, index trades, warrants and single stocks, has been hired by Standard Chartered as head of convertible bond trading.

The Australian Stock Exchange has expressed a strong interest in clearing over-the-counter equity trades but is less sure about extending that capability to credit derivatives.

Len Ellis, the former head of equity derivatives for the Americas at Citigroup in New York, has joined Capstone Sales Advisors as head of capital markets, a new role.

Nick Tranter, former pan-European head of equity derivatives flow sales at BNP Paribas, joined London broker Execution today as head of derivatives, a new role. He will focus on signing up European institutional and hedge fund clients.

Christopher Bae, head of single stock volatility trading and a senior flow equity derivatives staffer at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, has left.

Equity derivatives participants are jittery after an appeals court upheld a Securities and Exchange Commission decision to prosecute a pair of over-the-counter options users for what it said amounted to an indirect sale of restricted shares to the public—an illegal act. The case raises questions about whether the SEC will prosecute others who use derivatives to hedge restricted stocks.

Inovio Biomedical Corp., which is researching a swine flu vaccine, announced yesterday it had raised USD30 million from a pair of institutional investors by selling shares with embedded over-the-counter warrants.

Stephen Einchcomb, head of equity derivatives strategy at JPMorgan in London, has left the firm, according to an official.