Derivatives
On any given day, the derivatives market is a busy place. You won’t catch us trying to cover it all. Instead, we’re looking for themes, trends and structural changes that affect the market’s buy-side participants.
Right now, our favourite topics include: Libor reform, structured investments and risk transfer, the search for yield, and new ways of accessing liquidity.
US mutual funds piled into call-selling strategies in Q1
Counterparty Radar: BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and T Rowe Price among the managers who added to single-stock positions

Like your CSA dirty? It’ll cost more
Buy-side firms have to pay up if they want to post corporate bonds to their dealers, but prices vary

Pimco powers BNP Paribas to top of repo rankings
Counterparty Radar: French dealer grew its repurchase book by 65% in first quarter

US retail funds continue to ditch inflation hedges
Counterparty Radar: Aggregate notional drops 27% in Q1 as Pimco unwinds more swaps
John Hancock Life loads on inflation hedges
Counterparty Radar: US life insurer inflation swaps market doubles in Q1 on back of Manulife-owned firm’s expansion
Cuts and points – how the Dealer Rankings work
Dealer Rankings 2023: We have a simple way to compare dealers. Sort of simple, anyway
Meet the sharks, stroke the rays in hidden OTC ecosystem
Dealer Rankings 2023: Analysis of millions of trades reveals big fish – and small ones – in 10 derivatives instruments
In age of constraints, top dealers pick their battles
Dealer Rankings 2023: Three US banks are consistently top 10; none are consistently top five
Same instrument, different market
Dealer Rankings 2023: For buy-side firms, the list of banks you can trade with depends on who you are
Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan lead Risk’s first Dealer Rankings
Dealer Rankings 2023: Analysis of more than 1,000 cuts of Counterparty Radar data offers rare glimpse of sell-side pecking order
Fidelity, T Rowe add to sold single-stock call positions
Counterparty Radar: US mutual funds, ETFs shed $2.7 billion in options notional during Q4
BMR grows bought single-name CDS book as market slumps
Counterparty Radar: US retail funds cut $1.5 billion in sold swap positions in Q4
First CAD, yen inflation swaps appear in mutual fund filings
Counterparty Radar: Western Asset slashed inflation bets in Q4 as Empower probes new frontiers
US retail funds further slash repo borrowing
Counterparty Radar: Manager activity in Q3 2022 lowest in nearly three years; BofA surpasses JP Morgan as top dealer
Simplify bursts into equity index options lead
Counterparty Radar: US mutual funds added exposure to sector in Q3
Capital Group spearheads mutual fund trim of IR swaps books
Counterparty Radar: Manager cut 70% of its position in Q3 as space shed roughly $174 billion in holdings
PGIM cuts corporate CDSs as US funds shed volume
Counterparty Radar: Morgan Stanley retains top dealer spot in single-name CDS trades for mutual funds
Booming US fund swaptions market boosts Morgan Stanley
Counterparty Radar: Nomura cements position as leading foreign-owned dealer in the space
Morgan Stanley IM slashes FX options book
Counterparty Radar: Manager’s reduction tanks JP Morgan’s market share with sector
Capital Group, Pimco lead tilt to bought index CDSs
Counterparty Radar: US mutual funds added $7.8bn of bought protection, growing sector to $169bn in Q3
PGIM pares back long-bond options bets
Counterparty Radar: Barclays benefits from manager’s Q3 portfolio changes
US mutual funds abandon inflation swaps
Counterparty Radar: Volumes dropped to new lows in Q3 as price expectations cooled
CLO equity investors stung by Libor basis
Growing mismatch between one- and three-month tenors slashes payouts by a third
Relative value trades face Treasury clearing squeeze
SEC’s clearing proposals may hurt levered basis trades and worsen illiquidity in off-the-run bonds