Eurodollar Futures (GE)--anyone else trading these?
- Thread starter trdinglife
- Start date
Quote from yiehom:
Thanks mate, I will try and wake up them as I read along .
I thought the years since 2008 have been very bullish in the rates instruments?
Yes, undeniably. For those position trading on a longish timeframe, or with a curve trade covering a wide span of the term structure they've probably done well.
My remark was really shaped by the recollection that a majority of us in this thread back then were trading the typical calendar spreads, or midcurve option spreads, etc. If you look at weekly movements in, say, a 6-mth calendar in recent times compared with the patterns and range prevailing 6 or 7 years ago, you can see how attractive a trading vehicle it was then.
The classic reference source on EDs is Galen Burghardt's tome, 'Eurodollar Futures & Options Handbook', which is exhaustive in terms of explaining the instruments and their characteristics but almost certainly not what you're looking for as a trading intro.
More up your street would be Stephen Aikin's 'Trading STIR Futures'. It's an excellent, comprehensive and (mostly) approachable work written by someone who prop traded the STIRS successfully. Be warned that the core trading strategies are less viable these days (or worse, according to some who've posted elsewhere in this forum), and though he covers the basic TA techniques he clearly doesn't use them much.
To extract profits from trading the ED until Fed rate expectations begin to shift you'll likely need a more sophisticated approach than traditional TA.
More up your street would be Stephen Aikin's 'Trading STIR Futures'. It's an excellent, comprehensive and (mostly) approachable work written by someone who prop traded the STIRS successfully. Be warned that the core trading strategies are less viable these days (or worse, according to some who've posted elsewhere in this forum), and though he covers the basic TA techniques he clearly doesn't use them much.
To extract profits from trading the ED until Fed rate expectations begin to shift you'll likely need a more sophisticated approach than traditional TA.
I read the book by Steven Aiken, he is coming out with a new addition soon (not sure when).
I trade the calendar spreads but they are not that interesting now, so I am moving to ED options.
The book is as good as a book on trading can be, for me that means helpful in a broad way but no real insight and it has to move at a snails pace to cater to new traders.
Eurodollar futures are STIR futures or "Short Term Interest Rate" they are not currency futures and a wealth of information is out on the internet. Another STIR future would be the Euribor contract.
-----------------from the internet
Eurodollar futures are a way for companies and banks to lock in an interest rate today, for money it intends to borrow or lend in the future. They are traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), and are the most widely traded futures in the world, with open interest (number of contracts outstanding) typically in the 7 to 9 million range for the shortest maturity futures.[1]
Eurodollar futures are a cash settled futures contract on an interest rate for a 3 month loan with a $1 million notional value. They are essentially the futures equivalent of forward rate agreements (FRAs). However, because Eurodollar futures are exchange traded, they offer greater liquidity and lower transaction costs, but can not be customized like over the counter (OTC) FRAs. Since Eurodollar futures are margined, there is virtually no credit risk because any gains or losses are marked to market, or in other words they are paid daily. As such, if interest rates move in your favor, you receive cash compensation that day rather than waiting until expiry; these settlements are done every day. Since the contract is cash settled, no loan is actually extended even though the contract mentions a notional principal amount.
Many banks and large corporations will use Eurodollar futures to hedge future interest rate exposure. Sellers hedge against the risk of rising interest rates, while buyers hedge against the risk of falling interest rates. Other parties that use Eurodollar futures are speculators purely looking to make bets on future directional changes in interest rates.