The Structurer

You run structuring on a products desk. Clients come to you with a need, a view and a constraint — a pension fund that cannot report a loss, a family office reaching for yield, a treasurer hedging a currency, a foundation that needs income and has been promised 8%. Out of a bond and a few options you build them a note, and the payoff diagram you draw is what they will actually own. The temptation never changes: the richest structure for the desk is almost always the wrong shape for the client, and nobody discovers the difference while markets are calm. Sell the wrong shape and you will make your quarter and lose the relationship, your standing and eventually the desk. Sell nothing but capital protection and you will keep everyone safe and earn nothing at all. The job is knowing which client is which.

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Client trustThe relationship. It survives losing money in a product that did what it said on the term sheet; it does not survive a surprise. Zero and the client walks.

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Desk marginCumulative P&L in millions — what the desk is paid on. The least suitable structure is very nearly always the richest, which is the whole temptation.

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Residual riskWhat the desk keeps after hedging (lower is better). Exotic payoffs leave greeks nobody wants. Past 100 the risk desk closes you out.

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SuitabilityYour standing with compliance and the regulator. Mis-sell and it falls fast. Zero and you're barred from the desk.

Every note is a bond plus options. Pick the wrong shape and the client finds out at maturity.