Contract Specifications
CME Credit Index Event Fact Card
Credit Index Event Contract - Series 3
White Paper - Introduction to CME Credit Index Event Contracts
White Paper - Understanding CME Credit Product Pricing Mechanism
Step by Step Guide to Block Trading
Vendor Codes
Fee waivers extended through June 30, 2008 OVERVIEW In response to the rapidly growing credit derivatives market, CME will begin trading CME Credit Index Event contracts on June 17, 2007. CME Credit Index Event contracts will merge the benefits of over-the-counter (OTC) credit default swaps with the advantages of exchange-traded derivatives. These new CME contracts are an exchange-traded, centrally cleared and guaranteed product available to the credit derivatives market. CME Credit Index Event contracts are expected to provide a transparent and liquid means of writing protection on and acquiring protection against a number of defined corporate credit events, such as bankruptcy and failure to pay. They will trade exclusively on the CME Globex electronic trading platform. The addition of CME Credit Event contracts: - Will increase opportunities for traders, allowing them to hedge credit risk using a basket of high volatility investment grade corporate names.
- Provide a tool for traders who want to profit from a near-term outlook on investment grade credit, just as one might with TED spread constructed with U.S. Treasury and CME Eurodollar futures
- While OTC credit default swaps (CDSs) have been available only since the mid- to late-1990s, the outstanding notional value of this marketplace has already grown to approximately $26 trillion
ABOUT Introduced in the mid 1990s, credit derivatives are the fastest growing segment of the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market with an outstanding notional value of ~ $26 trillion. Credit indexes, marketed under brand names CDX or iTraxx represent the fastest growing segment of this market. These products are not “indexes” in the traditional sense … but rather, they are derivatives tied to a bundle of corporate credits. Click here to learn more about CME Credit Index Event contracts. | 
