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ABN AMRO has made several hires to bolster its U.S. and London-based commodity derivatives desks.

ABN AMRO has hired Ed Vartughian, an equity derivatives trader at CDC IXIS North America in New York, as a senior trader. Vartughian noted he will trade single stock volatility at ABN AMRO.

Credit default swap spreads in the airlines sector widened across the board last week as the market priced in the effect of sharply rising oil prices.

The prospect of an interbank market for inflation-linked derivatives in Australia is gaining ground on the back of a surge of customer inquiries.

Rumors of a bid by Citigroup for Barclays last week produced such demand for out-of-the-money call options that they became more expensive than at-the-money calls.

BNP Paribas in London has hired James Coiley, associate solicitor in the securities and structured finance practice at Ashurst.

Bank of America's Freda Sze, head of derivative sales for Asia ex-Japan in Hong Kong, has recently left the firm.

Last week we introduced the Composite Basket Model (or CBM) and discussed its implementation. This week we present some of the results obtained with the CBM and discuss how to calibrate and price with this model.

Credit default swap desks in London are looking at offering protection on credit-linked notes backed by Russian loan repayments to the German government in what is thought to be the first CDS on credit-linked notes.

Implied volatility on the U.S. dollar/Japanese yen fell last week as the currency pair remained range bound amid feather light trading volumes.

Derivatives exchanges and industry trade groups, including the European Energy Exchange and a working group of the International Emissions Trading Association, are hammering out pricing guidelines for the European emissions market, a move widely seen as a precursor to the launch of an index and derivatives products.