Derivs - Credit

Implied volatility on credit indices is trading more expensively relative to equity, according to strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who have noted that a light calendar over the summer may drive the two markets to reconverge in the coming months.

Hedge funds have been selling straddles on European credit indices this week. The straddles were at-the-money or slightly out-of-the-money, with September and December expiries attracting the most flow.

The Singapore Exchange is expanding into Hong Kong, establishing a liquidity hub and opening a derivatives trading branch.

Market participants have rallied against the European Securities and Markets Authority's focus on reducing the cost of post-trade data sold by exchanges, saying that the quality of such data should instead be regulated. The cost of collecting and licensing post-trade market data is seen as the major obstacle to creating a ‘consolidated tape’, or an aggregated feed of stock trade data from venues in Europe that would help investors benchmark their performance.

UBS has launched a new delta hedged short volatility strategic index that seeks to replicate a series of short S&P 500 options, allowing investors to earn implied vs realized volatility via one total return swap.

SEFs: Yesterday, today and tomorrow… By Scott Fitzpatrick, chief executive of Tradition SEF and chairman of the Wholesale Market Brokers Association Americas (WMBAA)

For buysiders, package trades are a big worry as regulation surrounding swap execution facilities accelerates and implementation takes place. A number of end-users are increasingly concerned over the potential for heightened risk due to the inability of SEFs to offer packages as a single transaction. Beth Shah reports.

With the start of regulation specifying certain derivative transactions be traded on swap execution facilities, some firms have struggled with the on-boarding process involved in signing up to the slew of varying SEF rulebooks. Models, therefore, which allow market participants to connect to multiple SEFs without the regulatory burden of being a direct participant, are gaining traction. Beth Shah reports.

At the beginning of this year, derivatives trading experienced one of its biggest reforms to date with the mandate to trade certain instruments on swap execution facilities coming into effect. GlobalCapital hosted a roundtable with senior buyside representatives, as well as other market providers, to examine the new SEF structure and how end users are adapting to the new market. The topics of discussion included the challenges when signing up to SEF rulebooks, the desire for more liquidity in central limit order books and how significant barriers still remain between European and US regulation and what, ultimately, can be done to achieve harmonisation.

The rapid deployment of swap execution facilities has left many sellsiders uneasy that gaping holes in security, in addition to major technological flaws in the market’s infrastructure, will only be realised in times of market stress. Daniel O’Leary reports on the concerns of sellsiders surrounding SEFs and why the fixed income market should look to the equity market for potential technology and liquidity challenges going forward.

Developing a swap execution facility is an arduous task, requiring significant capital, time, technology and market expertise to attract sizeable liquidity. For some, attracting that liquidity has been a missing component. Daniel O’Leary reports on the challenges facing SEFs and whether consolidation will occur during the next 12 months.

Market participants in the new market structure featuring swap execution facilities anticipate fewer SEF platforms and more defined regional pools of liquidity. In a roundtable hosted by GlobalCapital, senior officials from the buyside, sellside and the SEFs discussed the issues including package trades, buyside access and the latest developments being pursued by platforms across credit, FX and interest rates.