Derivatives houses including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch have started structuring capital guaranteed products on individual hedge funds and some are moving on to options on single funds. Most of the early structures have used a threshold technique known as Constant Proportional Portfolio Insurance (CPPI), but more firms are now starting to look at non-path dependent option trades, according to bankers. Options on single hedge funds are much harder to price and risk manage because there is not a pool of diversified managers and strategies to lower the volatility, notedMike Fullalove, head of origination for the structured solutions group at Merrill in London.
September 08, 2003