In many of the second quarter reports published by the world's largest banks, one unit drew special praise for bringing home the bacon in a tough trading environment – equity derivatives.

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and BNP Paribas were among those to highlight the performance of their equity derivatives desks in their interim reports in July, and recent hires to Delta One and ETFs teams by some of their rivals indicated many believed this could be one unit that could produce a healthy, sustainable revenue stream while equity markets and the global economy gyrated.