Derivs - Equity

Thomas Vergnaud, the former head of European equity derivatives single stock trading at Dresdner Kleinwort in London, who was snaffled by Merrill Lynch last month, is no longer joining the firm.

Jorge Giampaoli, an executive director in single stock equity derivatives trading at Morgan Stanley in London, is set to join London-based hedge fund manager Brevan Howard Asset Management next week as an equity volatility trader.

Standard Chartered has hired a pair of senior equity derivatives traders to lead global exotics and flow businesses, respectively.

Anice Lajnef and Dimitri Kassathine, directors in single stock derivatives trading at Société Générale in Paris, left the bank last week.

David Steck, a senior FX salesman at Deutsche Bank in New York, has left the firm and is tipped to be heading to Susquehanna Financial Group.

Morgan Stanley this week started pitching a number of over-the-counter option plays to take advantage of what it expects will be falling correlation in the equity markets.

Rob Pitcher, a director in exotic equity derivatives trading at Morgan Stanley in London, has left the firm and is expected to join Citigroup.

At the end of the month, London’s Prodigy Capital will launch a UCITS-compliant version of its USD30 million Asia and Emerging Markets Fund with a target size of GBP40 million.

Deutsche Bank has hired Dushyant Chadha in New York as head of equity derivatives trading in North America—a new role. He joins in August.

Jefferies & Co. has tapped 12 new staffers in equity derivative sales and electronic trading in a bid to boost its institutional client offering and create more bespoke strategies.

State Street, a Boston-based custody bank, is in the process of adding a valuations and processing capability for equity contracts for difference trades.

Thomas Vergnaud, managing director and head of European equity derivatives single stock trading at Dresdner Kleinwort, is set to join Merrill Lynch next month in the same role.