Client: "Do you have a BTIC contract?"...Eurex: "Yes!"

Major equity benchmarks were a battleground for the bulls and bears, with the positive start fading quickly into the month-end. Implied volatility headed back to the lower range boundary. Despite this calmer backdrop, several Eurex liquidity pools had comparatively strong volumes. The trending adoption of STOXX? Europe 600 derivatives continued. Several STOXX? Europe 600 sector futures were similarly active: Real Estate, Utilities, Basic Resources, Telcos and Tech. VSTOXX? Futures and Options showed solid progress; here, I am pleased to acknowledge our highly supportive on-screen Liquidity Providers, who have helped drive some of that growth with the much-improved pricing transparency.

The big positive surprise in volumes was a reemergence of trading for our index basis futures contract on the EURO STOXX 50?, launched several years ago as a listed solution addressing the opaque OTC basis market. We see regular activity there now. I encourage all members to have this contract on their radar (product ID: FES1). Another blip-up in interest came in our ETF Options segment. This time, it was the WisdomTree Copper ETC Options, as that underlying metal market saw some aggressive gyrations. The MSCI derivatives segment posted good volume increases for EM options and the more active futures contracts included EM Asia, China, India, Canada, Taiwan and France. Staying on the theme of global index benchmarks, Eurex was able to announce the launch of the FTSE All-World Index Futures to address new client demand.

I expect that the Jun-Sep roll will take the primary focus of all our members ahead of some well-earned holiday time. However, the work at Eurex does not take a break, and several exciting product launches are arriving in the coming weeks; details will follow.