Certificates: ‘Volatility influences demand’
Two major share indices, a ‘safe haven’ and two individual shares are the most sought-after underlyings in certificate trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The vola barometers, which have risen significantly at times, play an important role.
17. April 2025 FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). ‘Due to the very strong movements on the stock exchanges, trading activity in leveraged products and certificates has also increased significantly,’ reports Julius Weiss from HSBC. This applies across the board to all market segments such as share indices, individual shares and commodities. However, the DAX, the Nasdaq-100, the price of gold and the shares of Rheinmetall and Nvidia have clearly emerged as investors' favourites. Looking back over the past four weeks, all of the derivatives specialists we surveyed confirmed this in unison.
Vola indicator as an important influencing factor
The uncertainty about future stock market developments triggered by the tariff conflict between the USA and the rest of the world has led to a significant short-term increase in fluctuation expectations for the stock markets in recent weeks. The development of the volatility indices serves as evidence of this. The VDAX, Deutsche Börse's ‘fear barometer’, almost doubled from just over 21 to 40 points in the first few days of April. The EURO STOXX 50 Volatility (VSTOXX) even climbed to 51 points at its peak. This is significant for structured securities because the implied volatility figure is a key factor influencing the pricing of many products.
The yield opportunities of discount certificates, for example, tend to improve in an environment of rising volatility. Many investors have taken advantage of this to stock up on discount certificates on the DAX (DE000SJ75DK3) or the Nasdaq-100 (DE000SJ1KGM7), as Patrick Kesselhut from Société Générale explains. The cap on both certificates is a good deal below the respective index level, meaning that maximum returns can be realised even if index prices fall moderately.
Rheinmetall is clearly in focus
In the individual share segment, interest was particularly strong for certificates on Rheinmetall. ‘Until the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, hardly anyone wanted to know anything about the defence company, but now demand is incredibly high,’ says Markus Königer from ICF Bank. A DZ Bank discounter with a term until March 2026 and a cap of 1,000 euros (DE000DY4UL97) is therefore being heavily traded. Bankhaus Vontobel is also heavily buying a Rheinmetall discounter (DE000VG64G38), as David Hartmann reports. Here the remaining term (September 2025) is shorter and the cap (EUR 1,150) is somewhat closer to the current share price.
Rheinmetall also plays a major role in the area of bonus certificates. Weiß sees enormous demand for a capped bonus certificate maturing in June 2026. If the share does not breach the barrier at 875 euros by the end of the term, the certificate will be redeemed at 1,750 euros (DE000HT1XEY1). Otherwise, Rheinmetall shares will be cancelled. While such securities are therefore betting on prices at least no longer falling sharply, the starting position for reverse bonus certificates is exactly the opposite. According to Hartmann, such a product on the DAX was recently sold on a large scale after the price almost tripled within three weeks (DE000VG29UT5). ‘The considerable price losses of the DAX on the morning of 7 April were used by already positioned investors to realise profits from reverse bonus cap certificates’.
Speculation on falling volatility indices
In the leveraged products segment, the volatility trend has also influenced demand behaviour. ‘Active investors have used the sudden rise in volatility to position themselves with mini futures on the US CBOE Volatility Index (VIX),’ says Hartmann. In particular, a short mini future on the VIX was sought after, which could benefit from a possible calming of the markets (DE000VU4MA25). Leveraged calls on the Nasdaq-100 (DE000VG1A3Y0) and Nvidia (DE000HT49MK1) were also heavily traded. According to Königer, demand for participation certificates remained high for the tracker certificate on DER AKTIONÄR Krypto TSI (CH1171791515) and the tracker certificate on BÖRSE ONLINE Best of Krypto In (CH1171793321).
By Thomas Koch 17. April 2025, © Deutsche Börse
About the Author
Thomas Koch is a CEFA investment analyst, investment specialist for structured products and a certified certificate consultant. He has been a freelance journalist covering events on the capital markets since the beginning of 2006.
Feedback and questions to redaktion@deutsche-boerse.com
Deutsche Börse 
