Derivs - People and Markets

Concerns are rising among market participants that the European Securities and Markets Authority is showing a lack of understanding of request-for-quote and other trading protocols as it prepares new rules. If ESMA imposes overly-restrictive transparency regulations on these technical systems, market participants may refrain from using them, according to lawyers.

2014 continued to be an active year for financial regulation in the EU, with a push to finalise much of the outstanding primary legislation on the regulatory reform agenda and to move towards implementation of regulation already in place. The derivatives market will be particularly affected by the new regulatory landscape and the market will face many new challenges into 2015 and beyond, which we consider further below.

Market participants have been buying vanilla options on the Norwegian krone as the currency continues to weaken as a consequence of the oil price rout. Low liquidity is in turn widening bid-ask spreads.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange is now publishing values for three new volatility indexes using the prices of CME Group’s FX futures options in response to client demand.

Overall interest rate trading that was reported to swap data repositories last week increased by 420% from the previous week, according to data from the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. Overall credit default swap notional that was reported, also increased by 400% from the previous week.

Investors have been picking up options on the euro against the dollar as the euro continues to depreciate amid uncertainty over what happens to Greece and the eurozone.

End-users trading swaps could be exempted from posting margin on swaps not cleared by registered derivatives clearing organizations under a new Congressional rule amending the Dodd-Frank Act. Despite flaws in the original drafting, the amendment to the rule would be a substantive change to the legislation and would clarify the margin posting process, according to lawyers.

John Miesner, the ex-global head of sales at KCG Hotspot, has joined GAIN Capital as managing director, head of global sales for GTX, the firm’s institutional FX electronic communications network.

Banks have been comfortable taking on large amounts of risk in trading options on the dollar versus the offshore renminbi. As liquidity, hedging and volatility increase with the currency’s rising popularity however, new market entrants, new derivatives products and confidence in the Chinese liberalisation programme will drive growth in coming months, according to speakers at a panel hosted by CME Group and the Treasury Markets Association.

Concern is growing over the European Securities and Markets Authority’s process of establishing definitions and thresholds in the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive – a critical part of which is the process for determining whether an instrument is liquid. If thresholds are calculated incorrectly, market makers may be less willing to provide liquidity to clients, prompting concerns that other market participants may use public data to trade against them, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

The Intercontinental Exchange has added five new currency contracts to its suite of FX contracts, highlighting investor demand for more access to currency risk management and hedging strategies via emerging market currencies.

New futures on a 10 year US Treasury Note Volatility Index, which allow investors to hedge interest rate volatility with a single product for the first time, are gaining traction. As the US is ending quantitative easing, market participants are tipping volumes to surge in the first quarter of 2015 as investors look to hedge their fears over looming rate hikes. Beth Shah reports.