Mom-and-Pop Investors Lose Big on Oil-Linked Structured Notes
- $194 million wiped out among matured notes issued last year
- Choice of `soft buffer' proves costly with crude's 60% plunge
Balancing a Domestic and International Portfolio
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Even investors who thought they had a sure-fire way of avoiding losses in the oil market just lost almost half their cash.
Retail structured notes meant to protect against a drop in crude were no match for the commodity’s fall to a six-year low. Of the $437.1 million that have matured so far this year, 44 percent, or $194.3 million of principal, has evaporated, according to Bloomberg calculations based on filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The largest deal, a $104.6 million Barclays Plc issuance in April of last year, lost 42 percent of its value.