Structured Products - 2009-01-01
Articles in this issue
The listing option
Following the banking crisis, the burden of counterparty risk has increased the need for transparency and liquidity in the structured products market. While a move to listing products and exchange-trading helps offer this, how does it affect counterparty…
The pause before paradise?
If you think markets are finally at the bottom, this could be the time to start making the switch from cash. You could also plump for credit products in 2009. All that is required is a return of stability, meaning no more horror stories. But how likely…
Playing house
Arc Capital and Income is offering a six-year capital-protected product linked to the UK Halifax House Price Index. It offers 100% participation in any performance above 70% of the initial index level
Trimming the tenor
The Hong Kong market is undergoing a massive shift in the type of products that are distributed as investors opt for simple, short-dated, capital-protected investments because of uncertainty about long-term trends. Hang Seng Bank is even offering…
Market snapshot
Tim Mortimer of Future Value Consultants looks at the pricing issues for structured products in different markets and provides his trade of the month
Feeling deflated
The consensus is that interest rates are headed for zero in 2009, with even the long end of the curve looking depressingly flat. William Rhode looks at how structured products are likely to function in such an environment - from both an issuer and…
CD wrapping
JP Morgan is offering a three-year growth product linked to the S&P 500 index with principal protection in a CD wrapper. Participation goes up to a 145% knock-out level
Hedging the hard way
Quanto options have stung dealers' equity derivatives books after the unexpected spikes in volatility and correlation that followed the Lehman Brothers collapse, while structured product issuers have been hit by plummeting dividend expectations and…
Offering income and growth
Product Review
A simple plan
Changes to capital gains tax and the spectre of counterparty risk have done no favours for the German structured products market in the latter half of 2008. But with a level tax landscape due in 2009 and a move towards simple structures, Berenberg Bank…
Aggregate wins
Pershing, the broker-dealer subsidiary of the Bank of New York Mellon, has consolidated its position as an industry heavyweight with the August launch of an online portal giving investment advisers access to hundreds of products. So how does it see the…
Structured Products Online
Total unique visitors (30 days to December 19): 13,461
GE and Target in reverse
An annualised income of 16.2% and 16.8% is on offer from JP Morgan-issued reverse convertibles linked to General Electric and Target Corp shares, respectively. Principal is not protected if a 50% barrier is breached
Coping with collapse
The demise of Lehman Brothers spelled potential disaster for the US market. Reverse convertibles have sunk on the back of falling equity markets, fear of structured products is spreading like wildfire in the wake of negative media coverage, and a hoped…
