Everyone talks about the stock market being "efficient." The structured note market is not. When we build a note, we send the same terms to multiple banks and ask each one to give us their best offer. They can't see what the others are bidding. This creates real pricing gaps, and we take advantage of them.

What we built

We designed a note linked to two specific markets (U.S. small-cap value and Japan) with a 5-year term. The "multiplier" is the key variable — it determines how much of the upside you capture. The higher the multiplier, the more you make.

We sent those exact terms to seven of the largest banks in the world and asked a simple question: what multiplier will you offer?

Say those markets go up 50% over five years. Here's what happens to $100,000 depending on which bank built your note:

That's a $95,000 difference between the best and worst offer. Same note. Same terms. Same risk. The only difference is which bank you asked.

And the worst offer wasn't from some obscure bank — it was Soc Gen. The best wasn't from the biggest name either. Every bank prices differently based on their own balance sheet and appetite at that moment. There's no way to know in advance who's going to come in highest. That's the whole point of running the process.

Why most advisors don't do this

Most advisors who use structured notes are good people doing good work. But building custom notes and running a competitive auction is a completely different business than picking a pre-packaged product off a shelf. Here's what's involved:

Before we ever talk to a bank: We're researching which indices or assets to link the note to, analyzing where we think there's opportunity, deciding what kind of payoff structure fits the current environment, and setting the protection level. That's the design phase, and it takes real conviction because we're not copying someone else's homework.

Then we build the term sheet. Every detail has to be locked in so that every bank is pricing the exact same thing. If the terms aren't identical, the bids aren't comparable and the whole process falls apart.

Then we send it out. Not to one or two banks, but to every major dealer we have a relationship with. On this note, that was seven: BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, BBVA, Goldman Sachs, BofA, TD, and Soc Gen.

Then we wait, collect the bids, and compare. The banks don't see each other's offers. They're pricing blind. We analyze every bid, select the winner, and execute.

Then we allocate across clients, handle the documentation, and manage the note through its full term (in this case, five years).

That's a lot of steps. Most advisors buy what's already built, or skip structured notes altogether. Not because they don't care, but because building this from scratch takes infrastructure, relationships with multiple dealers, and a willingness to do the extra work. It's genuinely harder.

But on this particular note, BNP Paribas came in with a 3.25x multiplier. The next closest was JP Morgan at 2.70x. The worst was 1.35x. That's the difference between more than tripling your gains and barely exceeding them. On the same note. Because we ran the process.

The takeaway

Two structured notes with identical terms can have wildly different economics depending on which bank builds them. The only way to know you're getting the best deal is to make the banks compete for your business.

We do this on every note we build. Not because anyone asks us to. Because the numbers are better when the banks have to compete for your business.