Derivs - FX

Lisa Danino-Lewis, ex-head of e-commerce fx sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa at HSBC in London, is joining BNP Paribas in a similar role.

Institutional investors have been buying at-the-money straddles on the euro against the U.S. dollar following more weak data out of Europe this morning, causing spot to move lower on the pair.

Stephen O'Connor, chairman of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and managing director of over-the-counter client clearing at Morgan Stanley, has called for uniform derivatives regulations in an attempt to ease extraterritoriality concerns.

Hedge funds have been buying novel cross-asset dispersion structures on the S&P 500 and euro/U.S. dollar, playing the view the underlyings will both stay range bound. The thinking is sovereign debt concerns in Spain and Italy will be cleaned up by the European Central Bank, resulting in little to no risk of a tail event coming out of Europe.

South Korea saw a sharp bounce in the issuance of structured notes in Q1 2012 to KRW960 billion (USD 840 million) from KRW480 billion (USD422 million) in Q4 2011, with 15-year dual-currency range accruals the most popular note issued so far this year.

Institutional investors have been buying double no-touch options ranging from two-weeks to two-months on the U.S. dollar against the yen, ahead of the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting on April 27.

Hedge funds have been buying at-the-money straddles on the euro against sterling, following gross domestic product data that showed the U.K. has fallen back into recession.

Fx options traders and hedge funds are twiddling their thumbs as they wait on the results of the Federal Open Market Committee and Bank of Japan meetings later this week.

Tradition is readying the launch of its European electronic trading platform in the U.S. by the end of 2012, pending the readiness of banks to sign up given regulatory uncertainty.

Nasdaq OMX has revised how it lists fx options with the June 18 launch of PHLX Forex Options, which will switch from the pricing convention of existing fx options to strike prices that mirror fx rates.

MICEX-RTS, the Russian derivatives exchange, is going to build its derivative platform in the hopes of increasing efficiencies and enticing U.S. trading to the market, said Evgeniy Serdyukov, head of the derivatives market at the exchange in Moscow.

The People’s Bank of China’s decision to widen the U.S. dollar, China onshore yuan daily trading band could lead to a spike in range-bound fx strategies and bonus fx forwards, according to traders.