http://www.ft.com/markets/wizardryhttp://www.ft.com/rss/markets/wizardryFT.com - a series of articles on financial wizardryen© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2009. "FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times. See http://www.ft.com/servicestools/help/terms#legal1 for the terms and conditions of reuse.client.support@ft.com (Client Support)Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:31:42 +0100Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:58:11 +0000Newspapers240http://news.ft.com/cms/d1f3ce1a-6bbe-11da-bb53-0000779e2340.gifhttp://www.ft.com/markets/wizardry(PICS-1.1 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" L gen true for "http://www.ft.com/" r (SS~~000 1))http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/3a021810-5f9b-11db-a011-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3a021810-5f9b-11db-a011-0000779e2340.htmlIn a dramatically transformed investment world, ever greater innovations not only spread the risk but also drive change. Derivatives and structured instruments have evolved particularly quickly in the worlds of credit, equities and commodities.Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:31:42 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/82ee3e50-5898-11db-b70f-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/82ee3e50-5898-11db-b70f-0000779e2340.htmlCalpers is leading the way for investment managers as it seeks to capitalise on a new strategy allowing it to harness, to some extent, the power of short selling. Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:10:39 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/a7ed6cd8-5232-11db-bce6-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a7ed6cd8-5232-11db-bce6-0000779e2340.htmlUBS this month will launch an instrument that claims to be the world's first sharia-compliant investment product linked to commodity prices. And they are convinced that demand should be hot – particularly among powerful Middle East investors, who have historically placed much of their money in Switzerland.Mon, 2 Oct 2006 20:03:26 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/f916f8c8-473c-11db-83df-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f916f8c8-473c-11db-83df-0000779e2340.htmlEurope is set to get a new type of commercial real estate investment in the coming months, one that will repackage some of the riskiest exposures to property debt available. US commercial real estate collateralised debt obligations developed over time but there is no such luxury for EuropeMon, 18 Sep 2006 21:58:49 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/f0e23996-41c0-11db-b4ab-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f0e23996-41c0-11db-b4ab-0000779e2340.htmlCommodities 5 years ago were off the radar for most investors. Strong global economic growth this decade, fuelled by China's industrialisation, has changed all that. But the money going into the indices set up to track the sector now mean those indices perfom worse than their underlying commodities.Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:43:47 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/647050a6-3c3e-11db-9c97-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/647050a6-3c3e-11db-9c97-0000779e2340.htmlCFDs, or contracts for difference, used to be a fiddly, niche product used by investors to avoid stamp tax on UK share trades. Today, so-called "contracts for difference" are commonplace and they remain open to abuse even as their popularity grows. Mon, 4 Sep 2006 20:01:31 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/abcd6b48-36ba-11db-89d6-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/abcd6b48-36ba-11db-89d6-0000779e2340.htmlOne might think the last thing the credit derivatives markets needed was another abbreviation to add to the alphabet soup of CDSs, CDOs, CPPIs, ABCDSs and so on. There is now a six-letter instrument that is gaining traction in the capital markets – CDS of CDOs.Mon, 28 Aug 2006 21:06:24 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/a786ce1e-3140-11db-b953-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a786ce1e-3140-11db-b953-0000779e2340.htmlThe average hedge fund manager across all strategies has returned just less than 7 per cent so far this year, according to Credit Suisse Tremont. Some hedge fund managers have recently turned to "dispersion trading", a means of taking a bet on the movement of certain stocks within an index versus movements of the index itself.Mon, 21 Aug 2006 20:26:06 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/3751d880-2bc0-11db-a7e1-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3751d880-2bc0-11db-a7e1-0000779e2340.htmlThe property derivatives scene in London, where progress to date has been hampered by a lack of genuine liquidity, is akin to a dysfunctional village market. The problem is the difficulty of finding exact counterparties for every deal. In today's bull market, there are numerous buyers but insufficient sellers, even though, in theory, there should always be a market at the right price.Mon, 14 Aug 2006 19:33:45 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/f0ed3f20-263c-11db-afa1-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f0ed3f20-263c-11db-afa1-0000779e2340.htmlHeads or tails? Those following the debate over the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates know that the arguments for and against a further rate rise have been anything but black and white. Yet the Chicago Board of Trade's new binary options on Fed funds target rates reduce it to just that; a win or lose, all-or-nothing, bet.Mon, 7 Aug 2006 22:04:36 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/5c9924d0-20bd-11db-8b3e-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5c9924d0-20bd-11db-8b3e-0000779e2340.htmlThe fast-growing business in the credit derivatives known as synthetic collateralised debt obligations almost came unstuck in May 2005, when investment banks and hedge funds found that supply and demand were out of balance.Mon, 31 Jul 2006 19:41:58 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/078741d0-1b35-11db-b164-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/078741d0-1b35-11db-b164-0000779e2340.htmlBankers love the kudos and rewards of creating an entirely new financial instrument. Most innovations, however, are more evolutionary than revolutionary – although they can still be immensely profitable, writes Richard Beales.Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:25:29 +0100http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/b1cd8bf8-16c2-11db-8b7b-0000779e2340.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets%2Fwizardryhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b1cd8bf8-16c2-11db-8b7b-0000779e2340.htmlWhen the Bank for International Settlements, the central banking group, did its last triennial survey of the global derivatives and foreign exchange world in 2004, the results shocked some. The Basel-based group put daily global derivatives turnover at almost $6,000bn - half the size of the US economy.Wed, 19 Jul 2006 03:00:00 +0100