Interview with Commerzbank AG

It is time for the annual trading competition ”Sijoittajamestari” and we managed to get a quick chat with one of our sponsors and ETP providers, Commerzbank AG.

1. What are your thoughts about the trading competition?
We believe that the trading competition is a great way for both new investors as well as experienced investors to try out Exchange Traded Products. Especially for new traders there can be some useful experience gained during the two-week trading competition.

2. How would you describe the different products you offer?
Commerzbank AG offers more than 5 000 Exchange Traded Products across the Nordics. Everything from Bull & Bear certificates and Mini Futures to plain warrants and turbos are to be found in our product range. The large product offering gives investors a variety of different investment opportunities under different market conditions. Investors can get exposure to the development in almost anything – from commodities to blue chip stocks.

3. What would be the main reasons to choose ETP products instead of investing in plain equities or mutual funds?
There are many reasons to choose ETPs over plain stocks or mutual funds. One reason is that you can get great exposure to an underlying for a relatively small initial investment. This is due to the build-in leverage effect that most of our products have. Another reason is the fact that you can get easy exposure during bear markets by buying the so-called “Short” or “Bear” products. These products enable you to earn a profit when the value of the underlying is decreasing. A third reason to consider is that our popular Mini Futures can be used to replicate existing equity positions in a portfolio for either hedging purposes or simply to reduce the cash exposure in a stock. In other words, the products can also be used for reducing the risk of an existing equity portfolio.

4. How would you describe the Nordic market compared to the rest of Europe?
The Nordic ETP market is not yet as developed as other European markets like Germany or France. However, we see a growing interest for investors to invest their savings, and also from a political point of view there have been taken some important steps in the Nordics towards a more investment friendly environment. This is a tendency we expect to see increase over the coming years for the benefit of investors.

5. What would you like to highlight in your bank’s product offering?
The broad spectrum of our product offering makes sure that we always have products that fit any investor’s belief during almost any market conditions. We are constantly monitoring our products on the market in order to have an up-to-date product line, and we also welcome suggestions from private investors for new products.

6. Do you have any advices for the traders in the competition?
Use the trading competition to get some valuable experience with investing in ETPs, and also to get to know the products that you are trading. On both Commerzbank’s website and the NGM website you can find educational material that describes, in an easy language, how the different product types work, and how you can take advantage of different market scenarios.