Key summit highlights and learning outcomes:

• As concerns about an economic downturn continue we examine the future of derivatives as investment tools in this world of reduced liquidity. We will also investigate the extent to which these instruments can still have a part to play in investment strategies of savvy portfolio managers
• Cheap debt is disappearing, asset prices are falling and default rates are rising. But what is the place of derivative products in hedging and redistributing the resulting counterparty risk? A comprehensive review of this issue will be provided
• Derivatives can be a generator of positive real returns over multiple business cycles. However, in order for these returns to be achievable we should see short term illiquidity and volatility as not so much risks, but as sources of opportunity for long term profit. Listen to market leaders on the place of derivatives in long-term investments
• Smoothing volatility through the use of plain vanilla derivatives is the core competency of these products but as the number of exotic products on the market continues to increase we will ask the question, where does real investor appetite lie?
• Derivatives are here to stay and in order for both the buy-side and the sell-side to benefit from product innovation a partnership needs to be developed, a range of market leaders will therefore be in attendance to discuss both the perception and reality of these controversial products