HONG KONG'S corporates are light years away from some of their more adventurous counterparts in the Western world when it comes to derivatives, seeking risk-management - not fast money.
'They are very much liability managers,' said Andrew Fung, manager of swaps and trading with HSBC Markets.
'There are only a few corporate centres which are profit centres. They are not supposed to make money.' Instead, their brief is to minimise risk, according to Mr Fung, who said the territory did not have a Procter & Gamble (P & G) or Gibson Greeting Cards, which had been burnt by derivatives.
A derivative is an instrument whose value derives from an underlying asset, such as a share or a bond.
P & G lost US$102 million early this year when a contract it bought from Bankers Trust hit the rocks.
The contract, a bet that US rates would decline, lost money quickly after rates started moving up after February.