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Latin America should prepare for a surge in Chinese investment, analysts urge

Legislators and regulators in the U.S. and Europe have been coming together to ensure conformity on margin rules for bilateral uncleared swaps, according to Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Greg Smith, the now-former head of Europe, Middle East and Africa equities derivatives trading in Goldman Sachs’ London office, scathing op-ed in today’s New York Times set off a wave of reaction around the blogo- and twittersphere.

Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay a $500,000 fine to settle claims that it failed to have effective supervision of its total return swaps business.

Large inflows into VIX-related exchange-traded products are amplifying distortions in VIX short-term futures prices, and market participants are pitching ways to take advantage and wondering whether the distortion might become a problem.

Money managers looking to arbitrage volatility dislocations should short front-month VIX futures via deep in-the-money puts to cash in on the negative performance of long VIX futures rolls put on by other institutions in the market, said Krag Gregory, equity derivatives strategist at Goldman Sachs in a presentation at the Chicago Board Options Exchange Risk Management Conference in Bonita Springs, Fla., this morning.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange is planning to roll out so-called variance strips, aimed at replicating S&P 500 implied variance.

The country’s regulators are looking to roll out a high yield bond market to help smaller businesses find funding. But fostering investor confidence won’t be easy given the opacity around bonds, red tape and untested rating agencies. Anita Davis and Elliot Wilson report.

After months of miserable market conditions and marked investor scepticism, a major liquidity drive by the European Central Bank has reignited the appeal of European borrowers for investors in Asia. Peter McGill reports.

A set of currency strategists tell ASIAMONEY which Asian currencies look set to drop following a year of relatively robust performance.

The country’s sovereign rating is a notch above high yield and a downgrade to junk is a possibility. The impact of such a ratings drop on India’s markets and borrowers would be substantial.

The Europe, Middle East and Africa Credit Derivatives Determinations committee of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association has determined today that Greece has triggered a credit event by restructuring its bonds.