Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays PLC, and CME, the world's largest and most diverse financial exchange, announced today that CME Eurodollar options strategies functionality is now available through Barclays Capital's electronic trading system, BARX.
Barclays Capital is the first bank to offer electronic execution of CME Eurodollar options on its electronic trading system.
"The addition of CME Eurodollar options strategies on BARX exemplifies Barclays Capital's commitment to electronic trading in the futures and options markets. This provides our clients with the most powerful tool to trade all CME listed strategies on the CME electronic market," said Alasdair Hodge, Managing Director, Head of Listed Futures and Options at Barclays Capital. "Our clients will greatly benefit from this additional functionality and the market transparency that comes with direct access to the CME Eurodollar options market."
"We are pleased to partner with Barclays Capital, a recognized leader in electronic trading across all markets, to offer CME Eurodollar options via the BARX trading system," said Robin Ross, Managing Director, CME Interest Rate Products. "Averaging nearly 750,000 contracts a day in 2005, CME Eurodollar options are the world's largest interest rate options market. With the tremendous distribution network and sophisticated functionality of the BARX trading system, we will be able to further extend the reach of this market. BARX clients will be able to utilize the CME Globex platform's cutting edge options functionality to access this huge pool of liquidity, offering real time prices from major market making participants for thousands of outright contracts and complex spread combinations."
Options on CME Eurodollar futures are the most actively traded, exchange-listed, interest rate options in the world. They are a risk management tool that provides the opportunity to limit losses while maintaining the possibility of profiting from favorable changes in futures prices. Options liquidity allows market participants to take advantage of their views on the direction of U.S. interest rates.
CME Globex, the leading electronic trading platform for derivatives, provides customers with real-time indicative prices on more than 90,000 outright contracts and complex spread combinations. In 2005, a total of seven million CME Eurodollar options traded electronically compared to two million contracts in 2004, representing a gain of 234 percent. Barclays Capital and CME anticipate that this number will increase with the availability of CME Eurodollar options strategies on BARX.