LEAP call options in other countries? (UK, EU, HK, SGP, etc)?

Question

In the USA you can buy LEAP options - puts and calls that won't expire for up to three years. You can even buy a LEAP call on an Index ETF like SPY, MDY, IWM, which in my opinion is a killer combo because the low volatility makes the options dirt cheap to buy and roll over. LEAPs calls held for one year or more also get long-term capital gains treatment. You can use Index Options in the same way.

I was wondering if there are similar financial instruments in other countries, like the UK, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc, and whether a similar strategy can be used for stocks, or even better, indexes in those countries by either a retail or institutional investor, and how cost effective and capital efficient such a strategy would be, and also whether those investors could invest in the US index via their home country and currency.

FYI Here's an article that I and a colleague authored on the Index Roll, a USA-based leveraged Indexing strategy:
http://etf.seekingalpha.com/article/2816

Answer 1

These are specialized markets, and the only countries that will actively trade in them are the ones with laws friendly to derivitives.

Any country that is a former Brit colony will likely have derivitive markets. Others, such as Germany, France, Italy and Japan, will likely not have them because corporations rely more heavily on loans for capital, and not the securities markets.