Press

Eurex, the world’s largest derivatives market, is set to launch volatility futures on September 19. This will enable market participants to hedge against volatility fluctuations on the German, Swiss, and European equity markets for the first time, by means of an exchange-traded futures family, and Eurex to enhance its position at the cutting edge of financial futures products.

“The new products mean that Eurex will be offering market participants access to volatility as an independent asset class. They allow Eurex participants to take advantage of discrepancies in volatility within the European equity markets, to implement new trading strategies, and to hedge their portfolios against volatility fluctuations,” explained Rudolf Ferscha, CEO of Eurex.

The new financial futures are based on the VSTOXX indices for volatility in the euro zone, the VSMI index for volatility on the Swiss equity market, and the VDAX NEW index for volatility on the German equity market. All of the indices are calculated by Deutsche Börse on the basis of the corresponding index options for the Euro STOXX 50 (for the VSTOXX index), the DAX (for the VDAX NEW index), and the SMI (for the VSMI index). The volatility indices were launched in April of this year. Market makers are guaranteeing liquid trading in the new volatility futures from the outset.