Institutional Trading of Equity Derivatives
Institutional Trading of Equity Derivatives By Jay Bennett, John Colon and John Feng Each year Greenwich Associates, a consulting firm specializing in financial services, interviews investment managers, hedge funds and other institutions in North America and Europe that trade equity derivatives. The 2009 study, which was conducted between April and June, revealed some significant trends in the usage of “flow” derivatives, a category that includes not only exchange-traded equity options and futures but also a variety of over-the-counter equity derivatives such as index swaps, OTC options, variance swaps and dividend swaps. In the following article, three of the firm’s consultants describe their findings and highlight the key trends of the past year. espite declines in asset values and a sharp institutions are still relying on the telephone Institutions said this is an important criteria in Dfall-off in hedge fund trading, Greenwich to execute their trades, especially with selecting brokers, but not as important as com- Associates found an increase in the number of respect to options. petitiveness of options pricing, expertise of institutions that use certain types of flow The study was based on interviews with sales professionals, and the ability to provide equity derivatives, in particular options and 222 institutions in the U.S. and Canada and consistent service during volatile markets. futures based on equity indices. Looking for- 190 institutions in 14 European countries. In The study indicates some important ward, institutions in both North America and North America, the study participants con- differences between European and North Europe said that they expect to increase their sisted of investment managers, hedge funds, American institutions in their use of flow usage of flow equity derivatives in 2010 in mutual funds, and pension funds.
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