Cert-X

Cert-X market microstructure replicates EuroTLX trading model: instruments are admitted only with a liquidity provider that has the duty to support the liquidity on the trading book during all the trading day with firm prices for a minimum quantity. Liquidity provider’s role is fulfilled by the instrument issuer, distributor, or by a third party player with an agreement to guarantee the liquidity on the secondary market. 

Started  in 2008 with 60 "benchmark" certificates issued by UniCredit Bank, Cert-X counts more than 2500 instruments of different categories issued by 26 different issuers.
In 2014 the first leverage certificates were admitted on Cert-X and in 2015 range of certificates were expanded admitting also mini-futures with different currencies as underlying .
 

In order to support the investors’ choice, EuroTLX has recently developed a  new advanced research tool that allows investors to find instruments traded on Cert-X accordingly to additional parameters such as category, underlying, issuer, etc. etc. The new instrument research tool is available on EuroTLX website at the following link.

 
Instruments admitted on Cert-X are classified under the "Map of Certificates", the classification introduced by ACEPI (Italian Association of Investment Certificates and products). 

Here below the main features of every category:

INVESTMENT CERTIFICATES WITH CAPITAL PROTECTION

A guaranteed certificate ensures capital protection, since 100% of nominal value is guaranteed on the certificate expiration date. The protection level is defined during the placement stage of the instrument and it can be total (100%) or partial ( 90%, 80% or less) depending on the percentage of nominal value redeemed at maturity. Certificates with capital protection offer the opportunity to invest on the over-performance of the underlying assets.

INVESTMENT CERTIFICATES WITH CAPITAL CONDITIONALLY PROTECTED

Certificates  with capital conditionally protected are certificates redeemed only in case the underlying value reaches a particular value. Percentage of nominal value redeemed can be 100% or lower. Certificates with capital conditionally protected allow the exposure to particular assets providing a guarantee of  capital redemption, subject to the non-achievement of certain barrier levels established at the issue. 

CAPITAL UNPROTECTED CERTIFICATES

Certificate without capital protection replicate the performance of the underlying and with no redemption of nominal value at maturity. Investor is completely exposed to the underlying performance. 

LEVERAGE CERTIFICATES

Leverage certificates are financial instruments which provide more than proportional exposure to the performance of a given underlying  in order to get the take advantage of a multiplication of the underlying performance.