Speculators' new toy: Turbo certificates on the BSE

The structured products destined to high risk investors that Erste Bank listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in July have stirred high interest among investors, with deals worth above 14m RON (3.3m euros) being operated with them in just three months since launch.

Half of these transactions were conducted for only one security, namely Dax Turbo Short (EBDAXTS1), allowing investors to profit from declines in DAX German index.
Few brokers believed these securities would find buyers on the domestic market owing to their high complexity level, particularly in the case of Turbo certificates, but stock market apathy pushed speculators to try them.
Though the Stock Exchange is dominated by speculators, the Bucharest market does not hold domestic securities specific of speculators, yet, such as short transactions offering investors the possibility of gaining when the market falls.
Raiffeisen, which launched its own certificates on the Stock Exchange in mid-August, has not managed to attract such high interest as it listed only index-type certificates, considering Turbo ones are too complex for domestic investors.