Ray Hendon

New Currency ETN from Barclays

Alpha Seeker: Headwinds is probably an understatement. More like a hurricane. That doesn't stop the sponsors, however. There is such a lag between first filings and finally bringing the product to market, that they often end up at the exact wrong place and the worst possible time. But, this won't deter all investors, as low prices are a good time to buy if you can past the current wind level.

Ray

New Currency ETN from Barclays

I think that for the yuan you get the difference of the forward contract price and the spot price. As far as I understand, China prohibits Americans from holdingg yuan and from making local deposits with yuan balances. This prohibition forces fund managers to use forward contracts to try and duplicate local rates. The theory is that the difference between forward and spot rates will equal the current interest rate differential between the currencies, but there have been many studies that show that this does not work in practice.

The bottom line is, I don't know what you are earning, only to say it is the difference between a forward contract price and the spot rate.

The credit rating of Barclays is AA, I believe. Usually, if they are dealing with another institution on credit swaps, they deal with highly rated firms. I don't know the details of their counter-party contracts.

Best wishes,

Ray