International derivatives marketplace CME Group today announced that its new U.S. Credit futures have traded 415 contracts since their launch on June 17.
“In just one week since launch, our credit futures are generating strong trading activity as clients turn to more capital efficient ways to manage their duration risk and U.S. credit exposure,” said Agha Mirza, CME Group Global Head of Rates and OTC Products. “These products have already provided bid-offer spreads lower than 0.1% of index points, as well as offered access to an anonymous, centralized marketplace with significant potential margin offsets.”
“We welcome the new credit index futures at CME Group,” said Matthew Angelucci, Portfolio Manager at PGIM Fixed Income. “The opportunity to isolate credit or duration risk while benefiting from margin offsets with CME Group’s deeply liquid futures markets enables us to hedge our portfolios and provide greater liquidity to a greater number of clients.”
CME Group credit futures are the first futures contracts to help market participants manage duration risk through an intercommodity spread with U.S. Treasury futures. In addition, for the first time ever, investors can gain exposure to and manage credit component risk through futures on Bloomberg’s duration-hedged index. Clients can benefit from automatic margin offsets against CME Group’s Interest Rate and Equity Index futures.
