The $300 Billion Structured Notes Market Is Booming

Structured products sales in the US are on track to reach $300 billion this year, turning a once-opaque corner of finance into a mass-market business. Odd Lots talks with Alex Micalizzi, Nomura's international head of equity structured notes, who walks through how these products are actually built — a bank IOU fused with a derivative — and why the sales growth has been so steep over the past year. The conversation also covers how structured notes have become a way for investors to express views on the AI trade and to position around the turbulence in those names. The hosts frame Micalizzi's explanation as possibly the clearest account available of how structured products are created and how they work.