Given the experience of the past decade, investors could be forgiven for never again touching financial products that can be abbreviated to three initials. There is often something nasty lurking in the alphabet soup.

In the noughties, collateralised debt obligations - CDOs - used sub-prime mortgage yields to spice up returns from a bucket of bonds. Securities of dubious worth were also injected into collateralised loan obligations - CLOs - and broadly based asset-backed securities - ABS. Credit default swaps - CDS - created an illusion of liquidity in bond markets. The collapse of all these products was nothing short of spectacular.