I’ve been at Greenwich Associates a little over a year now. Since I’ve been here I’ve written a few blog posts about SEFs, but have otherwise not written any formal research pieces on the topic. When I started looking at this back in 2010 via SEF 101, it was a green field. Today there is […]
Tag: CFTC
The SEF RFQ Minimum is Moving to 3. Does it matter? Nope.
On October 2 market participants requesting price quotes for an order via a SEF will have to ask a minimum of three dealers to respond rather than the current minimum of two. For those of you that followed the SEF rule writing process from the beginning, you’ll remember that the inclusion of RFQ as an acceptable trading […]
Package trade rules – can they do that?
On Thursday May 1 the CFTC released an eagerly awaited clarifying document outlining when and how package trades would be required on SEF. Packaged transactions will be phased in by type from May 15th through November 15th, and to deal with the pre-trade credit checking issue (checking limits against each leg as opposed to the limit utilization […]
FX Markets are Ready for a Shake-up
The biggest finding in our latest report on FX electronic trading was nothing. Our 1500+ interviews with global FX users showed continued growth in electronic trading (74% of users trade FX on the screen), growth in execution algorithm usage (expecting 65% growth in 2014) and high hedge fund use of the two. But those data […]
SEF volumes died last week – so when and where will they return?
Turned out the first week of mandatory SEF trading was a Big Bang, just in the wrong direction. Reported SEF volumes for interest rate swaps fell off a cliff for the week of February 17th, dropping 64% (revised down slightly as new data became available) from the 2014 weekly average SEF traded volume (thanks as […]
A Path Forward for Prop Traders in the Swaps Market
The CFTC is great at sending emails out at inopportune times. In this case it was the 13 no-action letters sent between December 20th and December 31th while most of the financial world was trying to take a deep breath and enjoy some time off. Apparently Wall Street gets more vacation time than the Commission. […]
Greenwich Associate’s Market Structure Trends to Watch in 2014
The year 2013 will likely go down as the year of mandatory clearing. Once ignored by eager financial market professionals as boring back-office stuff, collateral management, credit limits and all other things clearing stood front and center in 2013 as swaps went from a 10-day clearing cycle to a 10-second clearing cycle. Given the progress […]
Some SEF Trading Certainty – Finally!
Who would have guessed that Black Friday would have turned out to be a big day for SEF trading. Both Javelin and Tradeweb resubmit their MAT filings, both scaling back the number of products made available for trading. This is a big deal for a few reasons. First of all, comment letters apparently work. As […]
Impartial Access: The CFTC Isn’t Messing Around This Time
The CFTC issued a slew of new guidance and rules last week, two of them particularly interesting and impactful. First was the rule that requires clearinghouses to have credit facilities available to back up all margin posted in US Treasuries. I (and pretty much every one else in the market) think this is ridiculous. If […]
Mandatory SEF Trading Does Not Equal Mandatory Electronic Trading
Forgive me if I’m stating the obvious for some of you, but I’ve had this conversation more than once and felt some clarity was in order here. As we work through the made available to trade (MAT) process, it’s important to reemphasize what actually will be required on mandatory SEF trading day 1. It all […]