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--Greg Wakelin, credit derivatives trader at ANZ in Sydney, commenting on waning interest in Australian credit-default swaps in global synthetic collateralized debt obligations.

Deutsche Bank's structured and investment products group, a part of the bank's global equity derivatives department, nabbed two staffers from Merrill Lynch whose responsibilities will include hedge fund-linked products.

A small movement in U.S. dollar/yen volatility last week was accentuated by a decline in dollar vol versus other major currencies in a generally quiet market.

The growing popularity of equity index variance swaps traded with an embedded volatility cap is fostering a market for options on equity volatility, according to exotic equity traders in London.

Forsyth Partners, an independent financial services group, and KBC Financial Products have structured an innovative investment product based on Forsyth's alternative strategies fund.

ADI, the French alternative fund manager with EUR5.83 billion (USD7.2 billion) under management, has hired Paul Besson, head of volatility and convertible arbitrage at CCR, a subsidiary of Commerzbank with EUR200 million (USD247 million) under management.

Hedge funds and prop desks have been entering the oil derivatives market in increasing volumes in the last few weeks to take advantage of the widening price difference between crude oil and jet fuel, according to traders.

Models are playing greater role in senior management actions.

JPMorgan has shunted Dean Rostrom, v.p. in the investors solutions group in New York, to take a new role in Tokyo as Asian head of global structured credit marketing and alternative investment products.

Singapore's Straits Lion Asset Management, with more than SGD20.2 billion (USD11.78 billion) in assets, recently launched a synthetic collateralized debt obligation which several credit traders believe is the first such local currency deal.

Gordon Boozer, a credit derivatives trader at Swiss Re in New York, has left the firm.

Interest in Australian credit-default swaps in global synthetic collateralized debt obligation portfolios has waned in recent months due to near record tight spreads, which has dented liquidity.