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Our experts frequently write blog posts about the findings of the research we are conducting.

Displaying 21-30 out of 67 results for "Interest Rate Swaps".

Goldman Sachs Uses JOBS Act to Sidestep Volcker Rule

(Apr 2013)

Evan Weinberger at Law360 is reporting that Goldman Sachs may have found a way around the Volcker Rule--the ban on proprietary trading by banks, which also prohibits sponsoring hedge funds and private equity funds--by using another controversial regulatory measure, the 2012 JOBS Act (of which we have spoken before):

By setting up an independent business development company in which it will hold a minority stake and limited leverage exposures, Goldman will be able to engage in at least limited...

Stockton California May Proceed with Chapter 9 Bankruptcy

(Apr 2013)

Yesterday a federal judge in California ruled that, despite the objections of bondholders and bond insurers, the city of Stockton could proceed in the process of Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Stockton is a city of almost 300,000 located about 90 minutes east of SanFrancisco Stockton was hard hit by the housing bubble and saw a 16% decline (page 345 of the PDF) in general fund revenue from FY 2008-2009 to FY 2009-2010.

After facing "an immediate and severe fiscal crisis" in early 2012, Stockton became...

Eaton Vance, Transparency, and Exchange-Traded Managed Funds (ETMFs)

(Apr 2013)

Eaton Vance (EV) made a splash yesterday when they announced an application with the SEC for approval of a new type of open-end fund they call "Exchange-Traded Managed Funds" or ETMFs. Since the announcement, several bloggers have commented on the implications of such products, such as Brendan Conway at Barrons and Olly Ludwig at IndexUniverse.

In August 2011, the Financial Times reported the uncovering of patents -- U.S. Patent Nos. 7,444,300, 7,689,501, 7,496,531, 8,131,621, 8,306,901 and...

JP Morgan's New Incarnation of Non-Agency RMBS Weakens Provisions from Pre-Crisis Version

(Mar 2013)

Last week, the Wall Street Journal covered the first non-agency residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) offering from JP Morgan since the financial crisis. This particular RMBS is a collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) which is "supported by 752 jumbo mortgage loans [...] made to borrowers with high credit scores and with about 35% of their own money in a down payment for the property." JP Morgan originated nearly half of the mortgage pool (48%) and First Republic Bank originated...

Barclays' Structured Product Linked to a Basket of ETFs and Indexes

(Mar 2013)

RISK.net recently posted an article entitled "IWM urges investors to think about risk-adjusted returns" in the structured products portion of their website. The article describes in detail a Barclays product for which Institute for WealthManagement, LLC (IWM) served as the basket selection agent. Interestingly, the basket is composed mostly of ETFs, which have been appearing in structured products more frequently as the ETF industry itself has become more mature. IWM's Matt Medeiros talked...

Apple's Declining Stock Price and Structured Products

(Jan 2013)

Jason Zweig at the Wall Street Journal has an excellent piece on a part of the Apple story that hasn't gotten much press: many equity-linked structured products are linked to the common stock of Apple.

SLCG has recently completed an analysis of the market value of outstanding structured products linked to Apple common stock (AAPL). In the following figure, we plot the total quarterly issuance of AAPL-linked structured products in our database since the first quarter of 2009.

As Apple's common...

What a CDO 'Resurgence' Might Mean for Investors

(Jan 2013)

Kaitlin Ugolik at Law360 had an article on Wednesday discussing the recent "bump in demand for collateralized debt obligations." CDOs are complex derivatives that pool assets together and split the risk of that portfolio into tranches which are then sold to investors. CDOs have been implicated in the financial crisis of 2008 and have seen a strong drop-off in new issuances since, though that tide may now be changing.
According to the article, some lenders are predicting a large increase in...

IBM Switches to Annual 401(k) Contributions

(Dec 2012)

The Associated Press recently posted a story concerning IBM's effort to cut costs by switching from regular contributions to employees' 401(k) accounts on each paycheck to a lump-sum contribution at the end of each year. This move, clearly in the best interest of shareholders, has real and significant implications to the 401(k) accounts of IBM employees. According to the article, only a minority of companies use this type of arrangement.

About 7 percent of employers offering 401(k)s make...

Attractive Yields and Hidden Risks

(Dec 2012)

The Wall Street Journal had a great piece this weekend concerning the investments some investors are seeking out to find yield in this low interest rate environment. Investors are taking on more and more risk to realize the yield they once found commonplace and this article brings a few examples to the forefront.

The risk investors are taking include credit risk (high-yield/junk bonds), market risk (closed-end funds trading at a premium) or some combination of the two (structured products)....

Dual Directional Structured Products are Risk.net's "Trade of the Month"

(Nov 2012)

Last week a UK firm called Meteor launched a "Bull and Bear Growth Plan" linked to the FTSE 100 that has a payoff similar to a structured product that has garnered significant interest recently: Dual Directional Structured Products (DDSPs). Dual directional products are Risk.net's 'Trade of the Month', and they have chosen this issue as their featured product.

Generically speaking, DDSPs pay out a positive return if the underlying index or stock linked to the product changes in value...

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