Imagine sleeping peacefully at night secure in the knowledge that 100% of your principal will be returned at maturity while possessing the power to:

Potentially make money in just about any asset class imaginable from stocks and Exchange Traded Funds ETFs, to actively and passively managed mutual funds, emerging markets, precious metals, real estate, oil, soft commodities, often difficult to access assets, such as hedge funds, and, even carbon credits, not to mention bonds and fixed income strategies.

Potentially make money not just in bull market but also in sideways and even down markets.

Access new fixed income strategies that can potentially generate substantially higher coupons to complement your traditional bond portfolio that provide the opportunity to outperform the total interest payments that would be paid on a typical bond.

Implement a "built in" automatic risk management system for your portfolio, preventing the catastrophic effects of unchecked negative compounding. Imagine potentially shaking off the market crashes of 2000 to 2002 and 2007 to 2009 as if they never happened.

Scoop up bargains during market crashes when there is the proverbial "blood in the streets", but with a safety net.

Access built in market timing structures that give you the power potentially to "lock in" a good portion of your profits before major pullbacks, such as the Tech Crash in 2000 or the "Great Recession" of 2008?

Utilize a new vehicle for risky but potentially high returning "satellite" positions.

Provide new and potentially superior solutions to Life Cycle and Target Maturity mutual funds and ETFs that can be custom tailored to you or your client's time frame.

Provide new and potentially much more attractive complements or alternatives to you or your clients' indexed annuity needs.

Remove the stress and uncertainty of picking the right asset classes and optimal weighting, instead benefit from "20/20" hindsight and automatically receive the most advantageous asset allocation after the fact between stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, and cash.

Provide you or your clients with much desired access into asset classes such as currencies, commodities, and hedges, which were excluded in the past due to high investment minimums, accredited investors, and Qualified Institutional Buyer (QIB) requirements.

Potentially reduce "Behavioral Finance" errors committed by both retail investors and Financial Advisors such as "doubling down" on losing investments in an effort to break even or to succumbing to counterproductive panicky selling every time the market pulls back.

Utilize a new vehicle for risky but potentially high returning "satellite" positions.

Create your own custom tailored investment strategy or niche for you or your client(s) that can be highly targeted to a specific investor's bullish, bearish, or trading range outlook of an underlying asset during a specifically defined holding period and risk tolerance.

Access a new "switch-trade" vehicle: If you are directly invested in the underlying asset and it experiences a substantial appreciation, you can reduce the risks to the portfolio, lock in your profits, and still participate in any potential future gains by selling the underlying asset and investing in a PPSP linked to the same asset.

New vehicles and tools to use for eligible ERISA accounts, i.e. 401k, profit sharing plans, etc.

Sound too good to be true? It isn't. This is the real deal. Principal Protected Structured Products also known as Principal Protected Notes (PPN)[1], Linked, Absolute Return, Capital Guaranteed, Capital Protected, and Minimum Return Notes are some of the fastest growing investment vehicles in the world of finance and for good reason.

Let's run through several examples, and you'll see what the buzz is all about.[2]

Example 1.1: Bullish Equity Index PPSP "Play" with 100% FDIC Principal Protection

A FDIC insured PPSP linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average® ETF that returns 100% of the positive price rate of change of the underlying asset with a 4-year maturity. If the underlying asset depreciates, you will receive 100% of your principal back at maturity.

Example 1.2: Bullish Individual Stock PPSP "Play" with 100% of Principal Guaranteed by Issuer

A PPSP guaranteed by the issuer linked to Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway B shares returns 90% of the positive price rate of change of the underlying asset with a 3-year maturity. If the underlying asset depreciates, you will receive 100% of your principal back at maturity.

Example 1.3: Bearish Currency PPSP "Play" with 100% of Principal Guaranteed by Issuer

A PPSP guaranteed by the issuer linked to PowerShares DB US Dollar Bear ® ETF that returns 130% of the negative price rate of change of the underlying asset with a 2-year maturity up to a maximum return of 30%. If the underlying asset depreciates, you will receive 100% of your principal back at maturity.

Example 1.4: Uncorrelated Hedge Fund Index PPSP "Play" with 100% of Principal Guaranteed by Issuer

A PPSP guaranteed by the issuer linked to the Credit Suisse Long/Short Liquid Hedge Fund Index (Net)® ETN[3] that returns 130% of the negative price rate of change of the underlying asset with a 2-year maturity up to a maximum return "cap" of 30%. If the underlying asset depreciates, you will receive 100% of your principal back at maturity.

Example 1.5: Mechanical Momentum Trading Strategy PPSP "Play" with 100% of Principal Guaranteed by Issuer

A PPSP guaranteed by the issuer linked to the that returns 100% of the annual average spread between the positive price rate of change and the negative price rate of change from a basket of underlying assets comprised of a U.S. Growth Stock and US Value Stock ETFs, European Growth Stock and Value Stock ETFs, and the Japanese Growth and Value ETFs with a 3-year maturity. The mechanical trading system takes a long position in the basket components that are strongly trending upwards and in equal short position in basket components that are trending downwards. If the spread between the rates of change of the basket depreciates, you will receive 100% of your principal back at maturity.

Example 1.6: Rising Interest Rate PPSP "Play" with 100% of Principal Guaranteed by Issuer and a Cap of 50%

A PPSP guaranteed by the issuer linked to the Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund® ETF that returns 300% of the negative price rate of change of the underlying asset with a 3-year maturity up to a maximum return "cap" of 50%. If the underlying asset depreciates, you will receive 100% of your principal back at maturity. 

Example 1.7: Fixed Income PPSP "Play" with a Coupon Linked to Average Performance of a Basket of Stocks with 100% of Principal Guaranteed by Issuer

A PPSP guaranteed by the issuer linked to 7 "blue chip" stocks that returns an annual coupon equal to 100% of the average positive price rate of return of the underlying basket of underlying assets up to a maximum of 8% per year with a 4 year maturity. If the underlying asset depreciates, you will receive 100% of your principal back at maturity.

These examples illustrate the main benefits of PPSPs, namely a one two punch of typically complete[4] protection of principal coupled with access to a massive toolbox of underlying assets, asset classes, and strategies that can tap into to potentially grow your portfolio through your choice of capital appreciation or income generation.

Throw in the ability to build your own custom tailored risk return profile and couple that with the power to do it in up, down, and sideways markets with to chose from, and you've got a serious contender for a portion of your and your client's investment dollars.