There are currently various market makers active in four segments for structured products:

— Actively managed certificates
— Certificates on alternative investments
— Floored Floater
— COSI (Collateral Secured Instruments)

Structured Products traded on SIX Swiss Exchange must be based on admissible underlying assets pursuant to the Listing Rules. Underlying assets are admissible if their prices are established on a regular basis and published in suitable media.

Most hedge funds publish the NAV only on a monthly or quarterly basis. This means that hedge-fund indices can only publish an official NAV on a monthly basis.

Structured Products with discretionary management of the underlying assets ("actively managed certificates") track the performance of an underlying strategy or a defined index. The composition of the underlying assets or index changes in the course of the duration. As in the case of investment funds, the composition of the underlying instrument (basket or index) is determined by a manager who has a certain latitude of judgement in the context of a previously defined investment strategy. The current composition of the basket or index cannot be made available to investors, because, for competitive and other reasons, managers are not permitted to publish their investment decisions (at least not immediately).

Floored floaters are distinguished by 100% capital protection in their reference currency at maturity, as well as variable coupon payments. The level of such payments is linked to a specific reference interest rate and may therefore vary.

COSI (Collateral Secured Instruments) are products which, by virtue of their collateral coverage, offer investors a higher level of protection.

In view of these circumstances, and in the interests of investor protection, the Admission Board of the SIX Swiss Exchange has decided that a market maker agreement must be concluded with an issuer in order to list these products.

The following market makers set prices according to the following rules for the actively managed certificates listed below:

Market makers for actively managed certificates must undertake to provide bid and asked prices for amounts of CHF 50'000 or more. The spread must not exceed 3 %.

For certificates on Alternative Investments, in particular indices on global, rotating or individual hedge funds, the Market Maker must undertake to provide bid and ask prices for amounts of CHF 50’000 or more. The spread must not exceed 3%.

The following market makers set prices according to the following rules for the floored floaters listed below:

Market makers for floored floaters must undertake to provide bid and asked prices for amounts of CHF 50'000 or more. The spread must not exceed 3 %.

The issuer of a COSI product is obliged to ensure market making for that product for the entire duration of its admission to trading on SIX Swiss Exchange. Bid prices must be available at all times.

An overview of the COSI products that are admitted to trading can be found here.