​Mid-Weekly: Election Looms; CBOE Europe Coverage

With the first of three planned presidential debates over, some market participants are now looking at the election as the next likely driver of volatility. A Trump victory could be a macro event, driving risk-on or off attitudes, while a Clinton win will drive sector rotation. Meanwhile in Europe, our team is in Ireland this week covering the CBOE RMC. It seems pension funds and endowments must maintain allocations to equities to have any chance of meeting their liabilities, according to one panelist. With those pension funds having funded status ratios that are heavily geared to economic variables, and endowments needing to obtain high returns to meet spending objectives, option strategies should also be explored to reduce downside exposure.