Structured products
Striking the right balance
Strategic Asset Allocation
Victory at last
The seismic movements in the financial markets last year confounded even the experts, as correlation took down every asset class and unwitting trader going. Victor Sperandeo, better known as Trader Vic, talks exclusively on the back of his latest index…
How we got here
Structured Products editor Richard Jory and launch editor Paul Lyon describe the magazine's development from its early days, while Incisive Media managing director Matthew Crabbe explains how and why the magazine came to life
Small buffer in a big market
JP Morgan issued a dual directional straddle product with a 10% buffer just over a year ago. Relying on nothing more than a slight fall in equity markets over the past 12 months has proved an easy way to erode capital
Leading lights
As Structured Products magazine celebrates its fifth anniversary, the time is right to take a look back a mere 15-20 years to when it all began, and to interview a selection of 10 pioneers who created and fostered the business from its European…
The KIS of life?
Keydata Investment Services was placed into a speedy administration by the UK's Financial Services Authority on June 8 on the grounds of insolvency. All new business was suspended and a temporary suspension of payments on policies was imposed by the UK…
Product performance
The three products reviewed this month are a principal-protected note, an accelerated growth product and a reverse convertible
Combining CDSs and equities
Duggan Asset Management is offering exposure to equity and credit markets with its new capital-protected simple growth product. As well as access to an unusual asset class - credit default swaps - participation is linked to the DJ Eurostoxx 50
Five years and six options
Barclays Bank has issued a five-year product that allows investors to choose the level of protection required and achieve a higher participation rate if they opt for a lower level. Each of six versions of the product has an option on the FTSE 100
The comeback kids
Last year's double whammy of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy, which trapped investors' money in the defunct bank, and accumulators, where investors were caught going long when the stock market plunged, almost killed off structured products. But as the…
Targeting inflation
Inflation expectations might be all over the place, but that has not stopped dealers trying to sell inflation-linked structured products. John Ferry looks at what is on offer from an asset class that has always been trickier than others for structured…