COVERED warrant issues are springing up from almost every corner of the securities industry on just about any blue-chip stock that moves.
Or that is how it seems. There have been 11 issues in nine days of trade, and 15 issues in the year so far.
There are more than 30 covered warrants currently listed and traded on the exchange.
The total amount of stock this represents in underlying assets is estimated by some brokers to be worth more than $100 billion.
Three years ago, covered call warrants were unheard of. That changed when Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa chairman Li Ka-shing launched one in the spring of 1991.
A call warrant, like an option, gives an investor the right to buy or sell an asset at a pre-determined price over a pre-determined period.