Derivs - Equity

Calyon is expected to cut its equity derivatives staffers in New York and move what is left of the operation to Paris sometime this spring.

Convertible arbitrage funds and short-biased equity strategies ruled the hedge fund roost in February, with fixed-income arbitrage close behind.

HSBC Bank launched equity-linked certificates of deposit last week referencing baskets of global and U.S. large cap stocks.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has finalized a raft of senior appointments, with Merrill structured investment bankers largely winning out.

Credit Suisse is thought to be in pole position to pick up a team of senior equity structured products staffers from UBS in Hong Kong after their departure on Friday.

Market participants are pondering the impact to derivatives contracts of Syncora Guarantee, formerly XL Capital Assurance, becoming insolvent after the monoline insurer stated Thursday that for statutory accounting purposes it has a negative net worth.

Swiss Alpha Asset Management in Pfäffikon is preparing to launch a UCITS III-compliant version of its options-trading fund, the Alpha Strategies Fund.

Insurers are hedging volatility in variable annuity products over increasingly shorter timeframes to rebalance their books and as retail investors are expected to cash out their policies sooner.

Industry officials in Asia have been buzzing about the departure of two senior equity derivatives staffers from UBS in Hong Kong.

Standard Chartered has appointed Malcolm Thomas as director of equity derivatives and intermediary sales in Southeast Asia.

Barclays Capital has added staffers to its proprietary trading team in New York in the wake of its integration with Lehman Brothers North America.

UBS is considering making changes to its U.S. correlation team spanning New York and Stamford, Conn.