Indexes
S&P creates taxable municipal bond index; talks structured products and ETFs
Standard and Poor's Taxable Municipal Bond Index offers exposure to a market that has grown substantially since the beginning of 2009.
UBS creates reverse convertible index to beat deposit returns
UBS index meets demand from German retail investors for regular income that beats the European Central Bank's base rate.
A dynamic model for leveraged funds
Guido Giese derives a model for the performance and Sharpe ratio of leveraged and inverse index funds that follow a dynamic leveraged trading strategy, that is, they are rebalanced on a daily basis to ensure a constant degree of leverage with respect to…
S&P 500 benchmarked assets reach $4.83 trillion
Standard & Poor's survey shows large gains in assets benchmarked against its indexes
Conservatism still reigns in wake of crisis
The private banking division of Credit Suisse is still seeing the impact of the financial crisis on its investors’ requirements. Fixed-income structured products remain popular but the low interest rate environment is still affecting the types of…
Funds find favour
Funds are the structure of choice this year, as the exchange-traded funds business grows and structured product houses look for fund solutions. But the fund industry has its limitations, not least because of the complexity of structuring and the expense…
S&P 500 index licensed to European ETF providers
Standard & Poor’s has opened its benchmark US index, the S&P 500, to seven exchange-traded fund (ETF) providers in Europe, meeting demand from a range of investors to be able to invest in US equities as the market recovers from recession.
FTSE targets UK pensions industry with defined contribution index
FTSE has created an index to help asset managers and retail investors navigate the pensions market. The index provider has partnered with London-based data services firm Pension DCisions to create the first benchmark for the UK’s defined contributions…
Optimism for property derivatives
Despite massive global real estate losses, the property derivatives market has been largely ignored, with trading activity focused almost exclusively in the UK. What are the prospects for growth in the asset class? By Peter Madigan
A return to domestic inflation
Activity in Europe’s domestic inflation derivatives markets dropped away after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Now, dealers report buyers and sellers are starting to return. But there is likely to be less warehousing of risk by banks and a greater focus…