​EQD Daily: San Bernardino’s EM Strategy Pays Off; Mariner Coria Sees Fixed Income Interest

San Bernardino County Employees’ Retirement Association’s strategy of selling volatility in certain emerging markets, particularly Brazil and Russia, is paying off. The fund was seen selling six-to-one-year puts on the benchmark Brazilian exchange-traded funds earlier this year, with strikes set at 90% and also had similar call strategies on Russian ETFs. The pension was also in the market for S&P put spreads last week. We also talk to Mariner Coria today, a derivatives relative value strategy, which is seeing increased interest from traditional fixed income investors looking for an alternative to credit and interest rate allocations that have been performing poorly this year. In Asia, CITIC Securities has hired Lin Zhao, a former senior portfolio manager at Capstone Investment Advisors, as a senior vice president in Beijing, while we also roundup recent flow trends in the region.