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John Hancock Advisers, the Boston money manager with some $1.5 billion in taxable fixed income, has been shifting its $800 million high-yield fund into a stronger weighting in bonds issued by companies in Mexico, Columbia, and Brazil. Arthur Calavritinos, v.p. and portfolio manager, says he recently added just over 1% of his portfolio (or about $10 million) to investments in those countries, and expects to add another 5% ($40 million) by this time next year, though he isn't looking for a specific trigger for the next move.

Merganser Capital Management is planning to go 10% over its benchmark's duration because the firm is bullish on short-term bonds, says Douglas Kelly who manages a $2 billion of short term bond portfolio. The steepening of both the yield and credit curves allows for an extra pick-up in yield and spread, which is why he is extending the term of his picks.

This chart, provided by Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney Inc., tracks bid-ask prices for par credit facilities that trade in the secondary market. It also tracks facility amounts, ratings, pricing and maturities.

Lehman Brothers is recommending investors sell U.S. dollar calls against the Taiwan dollar to take advantage of anticipated further weakening of the Asian currency. "The Taiwan dollar has hit post-crisis lows," said Ronald Leven, currency strategist at Lehman in Tokyo. However, further downside is limited as the central bank likely will intervene to halt a wholesale sell off. Lehman suggests selling a one-month U.S. dollar call struck at TWD33.70. The Taiwan currency was trading in the spot market at TWD33.45 on Thursday. Implied volatility stood at 3% for the one-month call option versus a historical level of 2.5%.

OTCex, a Paris-based equity derivatives broker formed by professionals from BNP Paribas and Fimat, has attracted 22 members and notched up 610 transactions since going live six months ago with an approach that blends on line and traditional voice brokering. Colin Jolly, coo, said the firm offers delta-neutral equity options on the German, Swiss, French, U.K., Dutch, Italian, Spanish and Belgian listed equity markets. Despite the popularity of the Internet some 90% of the transactions OTCex handles are closed by voice brokers at the firm, he noted. "It takes time to change habits," he said. "In the standard inter-dealer broker market people are used to dealing by phone," he continued.

Citigroup, which recently went live with a Web-based institutional trading platform for banks and brokers in Europe, plans to roll the system out in Asia, the U.S. and Latin America and will expand its product range to include derivatives, according to Financial NetNews, a sister publication to DW.

Credit Suisse First Boston in Tokyo has hired Vaibhav Piplapure, associate director, credit derivatives structuring at Barclays Capital. Piplapure takes the new position of v.p., structured products, and reports to Paul Kuo, head of fixed income, according to a spokesman. The structured products group has recently added Takashi Nakanishi, a fixed income professional at Goldman Sachs, to head up the team (DW, 5/7). The spokesman declined to comment on whether CSFB plans additional hires. Kuo and Piplapure could not be reached for comment.

Deutsche Bank has hired Katzu Ashizawa, head of equity derivatives at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo, to head up its equity division. Ashizawa will take responsibility for cash, sales, trading, derivatives and research in the equity division. This position has been vacant for some time and have been covered in the interim by John Macfarlane, chief country officer in Tokyo, according to a spokeswoman. Macfarlane and Ashizawa could not be reached for comment.