An Interview with Societe Generale – Sponsor to Sijoittajamestari

Societe Generale one of two main sponsors to competition. Societe Generale has over 22 000 issued and is one of most important partners to NGM on the ETP markets. Today we hear from Ellinoora Korkiakoski, Analyst at Societe Generale, about their strengths as an issuer and their own thoughts on Sijoittajamestari.

Tell us a little bit about Societe Generale:

• Societe Generale is one of Europe’s leading financial services groups and a major player in the economy for over 150 years. We support 25 million clients every day with more than 117,000 staff in 66 countries.Amongst others, Societe Generale is a leading issuer of exchange traded products (ETPs) in Europe and is offering its product range, market-making and services to self-directed retail investors in 13 countries in Europe, including Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark.

In your opinion, what are the main benefits in trading Exchange traded products (ETP) compared to other financial instruments?

• Most of the ETPs include a built-in leverage effect. With leveraged ETPs, investors can participate on the short-term performance of hundreds of underlying assets with relatively small initial invested amount. Trading with leverage includes a potential for higher-than-average profits but also an increased risk of losses. As opposed to some other leveraged instruments, with ETPs it is however not possible to lose more than the initial invested amount. ETPs also give the flexibility to invest either in rising markets (using “Long”, “Bull” or “Call products), falling markets (using “Short”, “Bear” or “Put” products) or even flat markets. One can also get access to certain underlying assets that might otherwise be hard to access for retails investors, such as gold or oil. Finally, there are several product types existing with different return profiles, fitting for different investment strategies. All of this, easily accessible via local brokers and tradable through exchange, in the same way as stocks.

What is the main reason to trade exchange traded products issued by Societe Generale?

• Societe Generale currently has over 22 000 ETPs listed on the Nordic Growth Market. We offer a very expansive range of instruments both for short-term trading but also for a longer investment horizon. You can find Mini Futures, Turbo Warrants, Standard Warrants, Bull & Bear certificates as well as Tracker Certificates from our product range. Investors can get exposure to everything from stocks, indices and ETFs to commodities, currencies as well as interest rates. We offer a big selection of underlying assets with competitive prices. We also have a website warrants.com, with several valuable tools for investors, for example for product selection or valuation.

Societe Generale have been a partner to the competition for several year now. What makes the competition so interesting to be a part of?

• We think that the competition is a great initiative and a valuable opportunity for retail investors to trade real products with real prices but with fictitious money. It is a great way for beginners to test ETPs and learn how they behave in real market situations but also for more experienced traders to test new product types or investment strategies.

Working for an Issuer with products throughout Europe, what makes investing in the Nordics so interesting?

• The Nordic countries form only a small part of the European ETP market, but we see growing interest in the Nordic countries towards trading in ETPs. We have also seen a growing number of new initiatives in the Nordic markets, such as new brokers and trading tools, which might further support the growth of the Nordic ETP market. The digitalization level and the adaption of digital tools is also higher in the Nordic countries than in the other European countries on average.

Lastly, as an ETP-professional, do you have any advice for the contestants?

• Use the trading competition to get valuable experience of trading in ETPs. Use it to gain knowledge of different product types and how they behave in different market scenarios. This way you will be able to find the most suitable product type and trading strategy for you.