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Investors on the hunt for regular income have this year poured almost $26bn into exchange traded funds that sell options tied to stocks, inspiring a wave of copycats and raising questions about their effects on market volatility.
追求固定收入的投資者今年向出售與股票掛鉤期權的交易所交易基金(ETF)投入了近260億美元，引起了一波效仿潮，同時也引發了有關其對市場波動性影響的問題。
The funds, known as covered call ETFs, have surged in popularity to contain roughly $59bn in combined assets, up from only $3bn three years ago, according to Morningstar Direct. The number of ETFs in the category has nearly tripled in that time to about 60 in the US.
Morningstar Direct的數據顯示，這些被稱爲持保看漲期權ETF的基金人氣飆升，總資產規模約爲590億美元，高於3年前的30億美元。在此期間，此類ETF的數量幾乎增加了兩倍，在美國達到約60隻。
“The zeitgeist of the retail ETF investor has moved on to income-based products and options-based products,” said Dave Mazza, chief strategy officer at Roundhill Investments, which plans to launch three covered call ETFs in the near future after dropping a strategy focused on meme stocks.
Roundhill Investments首席戰略官戴夫•馬紮(Dave Mazza)表示：「散戶ETF投資者的時代思潮已轉向基於收入的產品和基於期權的產品。」 該公司在放棄了專注於網紅股的策略後，計劃在不久的將來推出三隻持保看漲期權ETF。
ETFs are baskets of securities like mutual funds, but which trade on exchanges and enjoy preferential tax treatment in the US. Covered call ETFs sell options on underlying equity holdings to generate income in the form of premiums while also limiting the magnitude of gains and losses. Typically seen as a defensive strategy, they’ve enjoyed continued success in a year when US markets have boomed.
ETF是一籃子證券，類似於共同基金，但在交易所交易，並在美國享受稅收優惠待遇。持保看漲ETF出售標的股票的期權，以溢價的形式產生收入，同時也限制了收益和損失的幅度。它們通常被視爲一種防禦策略，在美國市場繁榮的一年裏，它們不斷取得成功。
About half of this year’s new money into covered call ETFs has gone to the $30bn JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI), an S&P 500 index-focused product that has grown to become the largest actively managed ETF. Another $13.7bn combined has gone into a second JPMorgan covered call product and a third from Global X, both focused on the Nasdaq Composite index.
今年流入持保看漲期權ETF的新資金中，約有一半流入了300億美元的摩根大通股票溢價收入ETF (JEPI ETF)這是一款專注於標準普爾500指數(S&P 500 index)的產品，已成長爲規模最大的主動管理型ETF。另外還有137億美元投資於摩根大通的第二款持保看漲期權產品，以及Global X的第三款持保看漲期權產品，這兩款產品都聚焦於那斯達克綜合指數(Nasdaq Composite index)。
The ETFs have grown so large that some analysts believe they are beginning to influence wider financial markets by dampening the widely followed Cboe Volatility Index, or Vix.
ETF的規模變得如此之大，以至於一些分析師認爲，它們正開始影響更廣泛的金融市場，因爲它們抑制了受到廣泛關注的芝加哥期權交易所波動率指數(VIX)。
The Vix, popularly referred to as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” is often used as a proxy for investor expectations of stock market swings. The index is calculated based on a complex formula tied to prices in options markets. It has crept lower throughout 2023 and is hovering near levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.
該指數通常被稱爲華爾街的「恐懼指數」，經常被用來代表投資者對股市波動預期的代表。該指數是根據一個與期權市場價格掛鉤的複雜公式計算出來的。整個2023年，該指數一直在走低，目前徘徊在新冠疫情之前的水準附近。
Alex Kosoglyadov, managing director for equity derivatives at Nomura, said funds systematically selling derivatives had helped reduce volatility by increasing the supply of call options and driving down their prices.
野村(Nomura)股票衍生品董事總經理亞歷克斯•科索格列多夫(Alex Kosoglyadov)說，基金系統性地拋售衍生品，透過增加看漲期權的供應並壓低其價格，幫助降低了波動性。
“We’ve seen a real influx of selling from a lot of these income funds,” Kosoglyadov said, adding that “a combination of a dovish macroeconomic backdrop and this systematic selling has really compressed volatility.”
科索格列多夫稱，「我們看到許多收益型基金大量拋售。溫和的宏觀經濟背景和這種系統性拋售結合在一起，確實壓縮了波動性。」
Big asset managers including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and smaller firms such as REX Shares and Roundhill have laid the groundwork in recent months for covered call ETFs of their own.
近幾個月來，包括摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)和高盛(Goldman Sachs)在內的大型資產管理公司，以及REX Shares和Roundhill等規模較小資產管理公司，都爲自己的持保看漲期權ETF奠定了基礎。
But not everyone is so keen to join the trend.
但並非所有人都熱衷於加入這一潮流。
Federated Hermes, a large active fund manager that started building ETF offerings within the past few years, is unlikely to compete in the covered call arena, chief investment officer Stephen Auth said. The firm’s experience with “doing stuff that’s hot at the moment” has not been good, he added.
大型主動型基金管理公司愛馬仕投資管理(Federated Hermes)首席投資長斯蒂芬•奧特(Stephen Auth)說，其不太可能在持保看漲期權領域展開競爭。該公司在過去幾年中開始推出ETF產品。他補充道，該公司在「做當下熱門東西」的方面經驗並不好。
“The money comes rolling in and then the whole thing collapses and the clients all want to shoot us,” he said. “It’s not worth it, so we try to stay with products that we think can add value to clients over a long period of time and not try to be too cute.”
他說：「錢滾滾而來，然後整個事情就會崩潰，客戶們都想殺了我們。這樣做不值得，所以我們儘量做那些我們認爲可以長期爲客戶增加價值的產品，而不是太故作精明。」
Hamilton Reiner, JPMorgan Asset Management’s head of US equity derivatives and lead manager of its JEPI ETF, contends that income generation has “always been an important part of people’s portfolios.”
摩根大通資產管理公司(JPMorgan Asset Management)美國股票衍生品主管、JEPI ETF首席經理漢密爾頓•賴納(Hamilton Reiner)表示，創收「一直是人們投資組合的重要組成部分」。
“Anything that’s not feasible as an investment and sounds too good to be true, maybe it’s more faddish,” Reiner said. “But traditional call overwriting is something that’s been going on for 50 years.”
賴納說：「任何不可行的投資且聽起來好得不真實的東西，也許都是比較流行的。但傳統的賣出現貨看漲期權策略已經持續了50年。」
Reiner encouraged newer covered call ETF issuers to be “slightly creative” when designing products and said he was “not really against them, but I’m also not rooting for them”.
賴納鼓勵較新的持股看漲期權ETF發行人在設計產品時要「稍微有創意」，並表示他「並非真的反對它們，但我也不支援它們」。
“I think there’s enough money for many winners,” he said. “I think the space will continue to grow.”
他說：「我認爲有足夠的錢給許多贏家，我認爲這個空間將繼續成長。」
Additional reporting by Nicholas Megaw in New York
尼古拉斯•梅高(Nicholas Megaw)紐約補充報導