Derivs - People and Markets

Dan Day-Robinson, founder and former chairman of GT & GE Group Geneva, has been appointed as a member of the board and vice chairman of the Swiss Futures and Options Association.

Market participants have been active in trading options on the euro against the US dollar, playing the view that the currency pair will move lower. The highlight of the flow was one investor picking up a sizeable at-the-money straddle on the pair.

Trad-X, the interest rate swaps trading platform run by Tradition, has hit a record notional high for dollar IRS in June, with volumes exceeding USD 50 billion, and the number of trades executed surpassing 750 trades. The trades executed electronically accounted for 33% of all US dollar trades at Tradition.

The Autorité des Marchés Financiers has launched a public consultation as it looks to strengthen regulation surrounding regulated markets and multi-lateral trading facilities.

Markit is developing a service that will manage the exercise processes and provide electronic legal trade confirmation for fx options. The post-trade service will also help participants reduce operational risk and become more efficient in their management of fx options trades.

Structures such as forward volatility agreements that capture lower volatility carry rolldown relative to outright short vol positions, but are protected from broad based moves in higher fx vols, are expected to gain traction in the continued low vol environment.

S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched a new commodities index-- the Dow Jones Commodity Index--to serve as an alternative to the DJ-UBS Commodity Index.

The Ontario Securities Commission has released a second set of amendments to its rule on Trade Repositories and Derivatives Data Reporting that will allow parties to designate a single reporting party for dealer-to-dealer trades and for non-dealer-to-non-dealer trades.

Overall credit default swaps notional that was reported to swap data repositories last week dropped by 17% from the previous week, according to data from the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. Overall interest rates derivatives trading that was reported, however, remained relatively flat.

Leonteq Securities, formerly EFG Financial Products, has hired Walter Treur and Anders Stromberg in senior structured product positions in London.

LCH-CME basis swaps, where one counterparty pays a fixed rate on a swap cleared on LCH.Clearnet’s SwapClear versus receiving a fixed rate on a swap cleared by CME Clearing, and vice versa, are to grow in frequency as dealers seek to balance exposure between one or more central counterparties, writes Beth Shah.

Andrea Sozzi Sabatini, the former head of equity derivatives and structured retail sales for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America in London, has joined Julius Baer in a new role.