​Weekly Bulletin: Jan 12-16

While oil prices continued to dominate the equity markets, Europe again was on people’s radars as the Swiss National Bank surprised everyone by throwing in the towel on its currency’s floor. Fund managers in Europe were seen pricing SMI dispersion following the move, while Swiss stocks fell, with short term put flow in names including Novartis, Nestle and ABB seen. Also in Europe, BNP Paribas has begun issuing exchange-traded structured products in Switzerland as it nears completion of integrating the Royal Bank of Scotland’s equity derivatives and structured retail investor products business, while Euronext has launched options on six iShares exchange-traded funds on its Amsterdam derivatives market. In the U.S., the CBOE came out with a raft of announcements this week, including 2am-to-8.15am [CT] trading for VIX and SPX options. The bourse is also eyeing vol futures on the MSCI options it plans to launch in Q1. We also talk to a relative value fund manager looking at the VStoxx this year to play cheap convexity.