Showing posts with label Credit Default Swaps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Credit Default Swaps. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

List of Credit Derivatives and Credit Options

The following is a list of credit options tradeable at CBOE and specifications for credit option and credit derivative trading:

Firm Ticker Option Root Month

General Motors Corp
GM GCY IZ

Ford Motor Co F FDW IZ

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc HOV CKJ IZ

Standard Pacific Corp SPF JSW IZ


Monday, November 17, 2008

Credit Traders Bullish on BAC, Bearish on Citi

Last week's DTCC weekly credit default swap (CDS) data shows that Bank of America had the largest decrease in the number of outstanding CDS contracts of any major firms. Citigroup had the largest increase in outstanding CDS contracts of themajor US financials, and the seventh largest increase overall.

Credit default swaps are essentially insurance against a company defaulting on its debt. Although the price CDS' sell for is more telling than the number of outstanding contracts, large increases or decreases in open interest can indicate changing levels of concern or speculation.