• Volume surpasses 450,000 contracts since launch
• OI hits new high of 6,800 contracts representing over $700 million notional value

CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, announced that trading volume in its investment grade and high yield credit futures surpassed 450,000 contracts, as open interest (OI) reached 6,800 contracts on September 4.

“With U.S. credit spreads near historic lows, clients are looking for new sources of liquidity to help them mitigate credit risk with precision and efficiency,” said Agha Mirza, CME Group Global Head of Rates and OTC Products. “As uncertainty continues across markets, our credit futures provide clients with a cost-effective hedging solution for corporate bond indexes, with automatic margin offsets available against interest rate and equity futures.”

“CME Group credit futures are an efficient tool for global institutional investors, offering a streamlined way to manage credit risk and gain targeted exposure. The duration-hedged contracts and derived block functionality are particularly unique, providing enhanced management of credit exposure and flexibility of execution,” said Joe Paccione, Americas Head of Futures and Options Sales and Execution, and Sanaz Fazeli, Co-Head Global Macro Credit Sales, J.P. Morgan.

“Credit futures provide an efficient and flexible tool for managing risk in corporate bonds,” said Matthew Angelucci, Portfolio Manager at PGIM Fixed Income. “Across investment grade and high yield debt, our clients can isolate credit and duration risk, while gaining margin offsets with CME Group’s deeply liquid futures markets.”

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. The automatic margin offsets against CME Group’s interest rate and equity futures are part of the $60 billion in daily efficiencies that the company delivers to clients across asset classes.

The contracts launched in June 2024 and are based on Bloomberg U.S. corporate bond indexes, enabling investors to navigate exposure to one of the world’s largest and most liquid fixed income markets.

Available to trade on CME Globex and eligible for submission to clearing via CME ClearPort, CME Group credit futures are listed with, and subject to, the rules of CBOT.

Source: CME