Derivs - Equity

Barclays Capital has replaced some equity derivatives staffers with Lehman Brothers traders.

Investors across the board are buying puts on stock indices to hedge against downside risk amid financial market volatility, fueling a rise in equity correlation.

Citigroup is tipping opportunities in the overwriting and underwriting options market as it looks to volatility for early indications of market sentiment.

Joseph Chang and David Scott have left their slots as Asia-Pacific co-heads of equities at HSBC.

PIMCO’s Global Multi-Asset Fund has been buying downside protection against the equity market.

Investors who lost millions of dollars on principal-protected notes sold through UBS and structured by Lehman Brothers are claiming the investments were unsuitable for their risk appetite, a lawyer said.

Société Genéralé is recommending selling puts and buying calls on stocks positively correlated with the performance of the broader financial market.

Daiwa Securities has hired a swathe of staffers, picking up senior names from collapsed banks Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.

Gaurav Arora, head of equity derivatives trading for the Americas at JPMorgan, left bank earlier this month.

Richard Carson, global head of equity derivatives at Deutsche Bank in London, and Andrew Kent, senior trader, will be leaving the bank following losses on its vanilla trading book.

A proposed rule requiring U.K. companies to disclose to the Financial Services Authority an ownership of greater than 3% in a single stock via contracts for difference is unlikely to help the regulator weed out players seeking to build large positions in a stock to influence voting rights.

Lucas Newbill has joined Société Genéralé’s hedge fund sales desk in New York as a v.p. in exotic equity derivatives from Calyon.