Market snapshot

Tim Mortimer of Future Value Consultants looks at pricing issues of structured products in different markets and provides his trade of the month

Continued equity market volatility has kept implied volatilities for our three main indexes at a very high level, while guaranteed products show a further decline in participation rates as volatility levels rise again. Meanwhile, the uncertain credit market backdrop shows no immediate sign of abating and both equity and credit markets are nervous as a result of many market factors and specific news or data. Prolonged periods of volatility such as we are now experiencing tend to have as much of