No-Fall Stocks

DERIVATIVES, THOSE HOT "BASKETS" OF FINANCIAL products that balance risky but potentially lucrative investments with conservative ones, are at your corner bank. For people rolling over IRA and Keogh money, Citibank offers a five-year deposit account with income tied to Standard & Poor's 500 stock index. Put in $10,000 now when the S&P is 450, and if the index average climbs 150 points by 1998, Citibank will return $6,660 along with the principal. Next to a conventional five-year CD, which would pay $2,613, the stock-linked account looks like a skyscraper. Should the market dive, the bank's customer, unlike the stockholder, retains the full initial investment. He also has FDIC . insurance, which no broker can match. Great upside possibilities. No downside.