Trades on the rise but volumes suffer in Switzerland

The number of structured product and warrant trades on the Swiss structured product exchange, Scoach broke all previous records in October, despite a 13% fall in the volume of Swiss franc issuance. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a separate category from structured products and warrants, enjoyed just over a 95% boost in turnover compared to October 2007 on the Swiss stock exchange (SWX).

Structured products and warrants counted 279,710 individual trades last month, which constitutes a 39% rise on the previous year. The fall in volume, which left the figure at SFr5828m, has been attributed to an increase in trading of leveraged products, particularly warrants, which tend to represent smaller investments of around SFr1,000. This is in contrast to the typical value of structured products which are more likely to contain an average of around SFr25,000, according to Zurich-based CEO