​Daily Bulletin: Tuesday Nov. 18

The sellside is pricing hybrid transactions too richly, making the deals hard to enter or exit for pension fund portfolio managers, according to one fund manager. He told EQDerivatives recently the pricing of the deals is too opaque and would potentially increase volumes in the structures if the pricing was more transparent. At BNP, the firm is rolling out smart beta type structured products to North American retail investors, seeing the format easier to sell than traditional deals, which some US investors see as gimmicky. The strategy has helped boost sales volumes this year. In Asia, we take a look at the impact the Hong Kong Shanghai Connect scheme is having on the equity markets. While some investors have decided to take profits, unwinding some arbitrage trades, lower volatility is expected in the mid-to-long term in Hong Kong equity.