Disparate investor demands elicit a supply of exotic securities. Creative security design often calls for bundling primitive and derivative securities into one composite security. The Chubb Corporation, with the aid of Goldman, Sachs, has combined three primitive securities—stocks, bonds, and preferred stock—into one hybrid security. Chubb is issuing preferred stock that is convertible into common stock, at the option of the holder, and exchangeable into convertible bonds at the option of the firm. Hence this security is a bundling of preferred stock with several options.
Quite often, creating a security that appears to be attractive requires unbundling of an asset. The process of bundling and unbundling is called financial engineering, which refers to the creation and design of securities with custom-tailored characteristics, often regarding exposures to various source of risk. Financial engineers view securities as bundles of (possibly risky) cash flows that may be carved up and repackaged according to the needs or desires of traders in the security markets.