Derivs - Equity

Matthew Pecot, former head of U.S. prime brokerage services at UBS, has chosen not to move to Barclays Capital to run its Asia Prime Brokerage business but instead take up a similar role at Credit Suisse.

Barclays Capital is recommending hedge funds sell a Sept. 09 put or call on the SPDR Financials exchange traded fund, XLF, and buy one for July 09 to take advantage of volatility as second quarter earnings are released.

Beckman Coulter, a California-based manufacturer of equipment for the biomedical field, has entered into a forward agreement with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs that will allow the company to sell forward 4.5 million shares of common stock.

RBC Capital Markets has come to market with a structured note giving investors exposure to the total return version of the Standard & Poor’s 500, meaning index gains as well as dividends.

Stephen Withers, executive director and head of trading for Asia at Banco Santander in Hong Kong, left the bank recently.

JonesTrading, a Westlake, Calif.-based brokerage, has added a derivatives trading and sales group.

Pension funds are protecting themselves with put spread collars to hedge equities.

New York investment bank Lighthouse Financial has launched a derivatives operation focusing on equity and credit. It may expand into commodities and potentially currencies downstream.

Barclays Capital lost USD105,000 in about three minutes yesterday on a callable bull/bear contract on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Warrants officials in the region told Derivatives Week that, while the amount was not huge, the speed was notable and perhaps symptomatic of the firm being new to the market.

The dividend swaps market has crackled into life in the last few weeks as hedge funds have rediscovered their appetite for risk has returned and dealers have been eager to hedge index exposures.

Morgan Stanley is recommending investors buy three- to six-month out-of-the-money puts on the Standard & Poor’s 500, Germany’s DAX or the Australian ASX200, while selling a further out-of-the-money put on the same index to cheapen the trade and position for an economic rebound.

New York alternative asset management firm Malbec Partners is considering launching a credit-focused fund and a long/short equity strategy later this year.