Investors in the U.S. are buying a record number of contracts for special risk insurance against the background of the sale, which has already led to a drop in the value of U.S. stocks worth several trillion dollars, writes the Financial Times.

Purchases of put options and ETFs are rising substantially, with big investors putting $34.3 billion into these instruments in the four weeks ended Sept. 23, according to data from Options Clearing Corp, analyzed by Sundial Capital Research.

Institutional investors invested $9.6 billion in these instruments in the past week. Thus, large funds want to protect themselves from a sell-off fueled by active measures by the world’s central banks to curb inflation.

Over the past month, fund managers have begun buying put options on individual stocks, betting that they can better protect their portfolios if they hedge against large swings in the securities of companies like FedEx Corp (NYSE:FDX). And Ford Motor (NYSE:F), which has fallen significantly in price after those companies warned of weakening earnings.

The services of all risk insurance brokers are more relevant today than ever. Investors and strategists say the relatively slow pace of decline in major U.S. stock market indexes is due in part to the fact that investors have largely protected themselves from risk after the downturn earlier this year.

Earlier, we reported that European stock market capitalization falls, stocks trade negative.