Rampart Investment Management, an asset management firm specializing in option strategies, has signed an agreement with the Santa Barbara County Employees’ Retirement System (SBCERS), an approximately $2 billion public employee retirement system in California.

Under this agreement, Rampart will manage an option strategy using the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) S&P 500 BuyWrite Index (BXM) investment approach.

The assignment began on 1 October 2010. Rampart was the first licensee of CBOE’s BXM strategy, which helps institutions increase the utilization of their equity assets by monetizing the volatility of those assets, creating a new income stream from selling index call options.

Rampart Investment Management president and CEO Ronald Egalka said Rampart’s implementation of the BXM is a passive, total return strategy that uses a systematic, disciplined monthly option trading cycle.

"Our capacity to assist investors by monetizing stock and market volatility to their benefit has resulted in increased interest from financial institutions and public plans like SBCERS that are employing options as a dynamic investment strategy," Egalka said.