Corporate bond market participants are starting to look for alternative ways to trade bonds as regulations put the squeeze on the amount of liquidity in the banking system. 

Expectations of rising US treasury yields have hit emerging market currencies hard, but not all currencies are equally vulnerable.

The convertibles market has experienced something of a resurgence in 2013, thanks to high stock prices and tight spreads, and this increase in issuance has brought diversity to the market.

The foreign exchange markets have been tough of late, amid relentlessly declining volatility and persistently low returns. However, a shift in the economic landscape may give managers a chance to shine in the coming year and take advantage of new relationships with the banking community.

With balance sheet clean-ups continuing in Europe and the US, banks in emerging markets have grabbed the opportunity to forge stronger relationships with local commodity producers. 

The Swiss National Bank has been the most aggressive central bank in a developed economy when it comes to seeking to stop its safe haven status from driving excessive currency appreciation, but many other such institutions are using other, more varied techniques.

Bookrunners have taken the blame for hyping the Facebook public offering and undermining sentiment towards other public listings, but the reality is more complicated.

Once purchased as a way to diversify out of equities, commodities appear to have become an extension of other risk assets. However, this state of affairs may not be permanent.

The discovery of vast oil reserves off the shore of Angola has significantly improved the country's economic outlook, with the government licensing the exploration and structuring the taxation of production in such a way that profits from the oil will filter down to benefit the entire population.