FXL, a combination of a foreign-exchange hedge with an insurance policy.

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This covers a host of businesses that provide steady income and are not too capital-intensive, such as corporate cash management, foreign exchange, trade finance, global custody and hedge-fund administration.

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On the other hand, some of Bank Austria's returns have come from such volatile areas as investments in hedge funds and trading cash, foreign exchange and derivatives for the bank's own account.

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Banks will still be able to trade swaps to hedge risk and trade interest rate or foreign exchange swaps, but dealing in riskier swaps transactions must still be moved into affiliates.

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Among them: hedge funds, untraded securities, foreign-exchange contracts, precious-metal bullion, tax liens, natural-gas wells, private mortgages and other secured debt, movie partnerships, cattle, fishing rights and even investments in bull semen.

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So, you may be thinking, you could hedge your U.S. bond portfolio by making a side bet against the dollar in the foreign exchange market.

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