For two years leading investment index vendors FTSE and Morgan Stanley Capital International MSCI have laid the groundwork to bring their products up to date, in the process creating unprecedented trading requirements for investors and potential opportunities for hedge fund managers. Over the course of the next month those changes will finally begin to take place, prompting analysts once more to forecast the anticipated action in the market.
In the case of MSCI alone, says Benjamin Bowler, director of equity derivatives strategy at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo, passive investors will be required to conduct $100 billion of equities trades involving thousands of securities. On top of that, more investors who reference the MSCI indices,...