[radikalus]

Yeah -- my gut intuition is that this would be a GREAT opp for custodians of shares. (Your shell contract example basically)

You'd buy huge tranches of companies and swap out synthetic exposure to secondary investors who want just temporary directional risk in these companies. Modeling the relative value of the true shares and synthetic shares would be interesting/fun.

[sseveran]

This already exists. It is called a Total Return Swap. It allows the purchase of the economics of a security without the actual ownership.

[radikalus]

I used to trade them =p

[jackgavigan]

Me too! Which markets?