As below, Interactive Brokers lets me trade "IOPTS". What are these?
They also let me trade "Structured Products". I know what these are, and even know what an ISIN is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISIN), but where do I find a list of structured products?
I think an IOPT is a Dutch warrant. Someone else might understand what this is.
Interactive Brokers offers global securities trading. Notice that the security types are:
cash, stock (STK), futures (FUT), options (OPT), futures options (FOP), warrants (WAR), bonds, contracts for differences (CFD), or Dutch warrants (IOPT)
There is a distinction between options (OPT), warrants (WAR), options on futures (FOP) and finally, Dutch Warrants (IOPT). IOPT is intuitively similar to an "index option". (For index option valuation equations, iopt=1 for a call, and iopt= -1 for a put. I don't know if Interactive Brokers uses that convention).
What is the difference between a "Dutch Warrant" and an option or warrant? Dutch warrants aren't analogous to Dutch auctions e.g. in the U.S.Treasury bond market. For North America, Interactive Brokers only lists commissions for traditional warrants and options, that is, warrants and options that have a single stock as the underlying security. For Asia and Europe, Interactive Brokers lists both the "regular" options (and warrants) as well as "equity index options", see commission schedule.
Dutch warrants are actually more like options than warrants, and that may be why Interactive Brokers refers to them as IOPTS (index options). Here's some background from a research article about Dutch warrants (which was NOT easy to find):
In the Netherlands, ING Bank introduced call and put warrants on the FT-SE 100, the CAC 40 and the German DAX indexes.
These are some differences between [Dutch] index warrants and exchange traded index options:
- index warrants are traded on the Stock Exchange, instead of the Options Exchange. This is not entirely applicable in the Netherlands. [Dutch] index warrants issued by ING Bank are traded on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Index warrants issued by Citibank are traded on the European Options Exchange, but... trade in a special category.
- Dutch index warrants are traded in the local currency, Dutch guilders. Yet they have an exercise price denominated in a foreign currency. All Dutch warrants have this in common: At the exercise date, the foreign currency pay-off of the warrant is converted into guilders at the prevailing exchange rate.
That last point is the most important, as it makes the pricing and valuation less subject to arbitrage.
Last part of the question: Where do you find Structured Products on Interactive Brokers website? Look on the Products page (rather than the Commissions page, which does't mention Structured Products at all). There is a Structured Products tab with details.