CHICAGO - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is looking closely at adding futures contracts based on the S&P/Barra Value Index, the S&P/Barra Growth Index and the S&P Small Cap Index.
John B. Rowsell, director of index products marketing, said the CME is getting a lot of interest from institutional investors in using those products, particularly the value and growth indexes.
He said exchange executives are also studying the addition of a Nikkei 300 Index, which would be settled in Yen, unlike the CME's successful Nikkei 225 Index contract, which is settled in U.S. dollars.
NEW YORK - Maarten L. Nederlof joined derivatives consultant Capital Market Risk Advisors Inc., New York, as vice president and director of risk management strategies. He left TSA Capital Management, Los Angeles, where he was a managing director.
Mr. Nederlof will concentrate on consulting to institutional managers, such as pension funds and insurance companies, according to a spokesman.
His replacement at TSA has not been named yet.
WASHINGTON - The majority of worldwide futures and options trading occurred outside of the United States in 1994, the first time that has happened, according to the Futures Industry Association.
While trading at U.S.-based exchanges grew 26% last year on volume of 658 million, non-U.S. exchanges posted trading growth of 44% on volume of 777 million.
The association noted interest rate contracts represented the majority of trading for exchanges worldwide last year, making up 52% of all trades. The three most heavily traded contracts in 1994 were, in order: the three-month Eurodollar futures contract at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange; the U.S. Treasury Bond futures contract at the Chicago Board of Trade; and the S&P 100 Index options at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. All three exchanges are based in Chicago.
NEW YORK - It appears active futures trading advisers had another weak month of performance in January, posting a return of -2.2%, according to preliminary numbers at Managed Accounts Reports Inc., a tracker of futures traders.
Systematic futures traders and currency futures traders both contributed to the losses in January, according to MAR. The results come on the heels of negative performance in December when the MAR Trading Advisor Qualified Universe Index was down 1.2%.
Another measure of futures performance, the Barra/MLM Index, rose 1.24% in January, and 1.6% in December. The index uses a simple trend following futures trading model to simulate a passive managed futures strategy.
LONDON - The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange signed a letter of intent to offer a Euroyen futures contract with the Tokyo International Futures Exchange.
The two exchanges will allow Euroyen trades in London to offset trades in Tokyo, and effectively increases the Euroyen trading day to 16 hours. Euroyen trading in London is expected to begin sometime this year.
WASHINGTON - An association to lobby on behalf of derivatives users is starting to push for pension fund and mutual fund clients.
The End Users of Derivatives Association Inc. was created last summer as a complement to the International Swaps & Dealers Association. The interests of derivatives users "may not have a total identity of interests with ISDA," said Warren Davis, partner with the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan, Washington, which is the association's counsel.
EUDA hopes to cut across industry lines in lobbying derivatives issues, as opposed to the ISDA, which has a dealer focus, Mr. Davis said.
Members include Aluminum Co. of America, the Student Loan Marketing Association and General Motors Corp., he said.
