Let's explore structured products, a diverse category of financial instruments widely used in wealth management, institutional investing, and corporate risk management to achieve specific financial objectives. We'll start off by looking at the players in the structured products world before thinking about the various ways structured products can be categorized. We'll then have a look at a few structured products in a little more depth, covering how the product works and what benefits it offers investors. These products include equity linked notes, principle protected participation notes, reverse convertibles, credit linked notes, and dual currency deposits. Finally, we'll wrap up by looking at the risks involved for structured products players. The purpose of structured products is to capture a particular investment or hedging strategy within a single packaged product. Many structured products incorporate derivatives such as options, swaps, and forwards, but this is not always the case, as others may rely on alternative structuring techniques. For example, mortgage-backed securities pool loans into structured tranches of tradable securities. One of the key advantages of structured products is flexibility by using the right combination of financial instruments, these products can be set up to reflect almost any market view, whether bullish or bearish, volatile, or range-bound. Structured products are primarily traded in over-the-counter markets where bespoke contracts can be negotiated to create customized risk return profiles that align with investors' needs. Structured products can take many forms. Some are built around securitized debt, where mortgages, corporate loans, car loans, and other types of debt are pooled together to create asset backed or mortgage backed securities. These pools can then be further subdivided into more complex instruments, such as collateralized debt or collateralized mortgage obligations. Other products can be structured as simple structured notes where a deposit or bond is combined with a derivative to create products such as credit linked notes, dual currency deposits, and equity linked notes. These products generally have a relatively straightforward risk return profile, which involves investors receiving fixed or conditional payouts based on the performance of an underlying asset. They are typically designed for retail and institutional investors looking for enhanced yield or exposure to a particular market while maintaining a relatively simple investment structure. In contrast, complex structured products go beyond basic combinations of bonds and derivatives, and often involve multiple layers of optionality, leverage or customized payoff structures. Banks and wealth advisors create these products for clients seeking more tailored exposure to specific market conditions, such as volatility, interest rate shifts, or sector specific performance. Beyond investments, structured products are also used for hedging. Corporates looking to manage their exposure to interest rates, foreign exchange and commodity price fluctuations may use structured products tailored to their specific requirements.