CBOE Holdings is planning to launch options on the MSCI Emerging Markets and MSCI EAFE Indexes on Tuesday, 21 April. The ticker symbols will be MXEF and MXEA respectively.
Under an agreement with MSCI, announced in December 2014, options on the MSCI Indexes will be listed for trading in the US solely on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). IMC Financial Markets will serve as the Electronic Designated Primary Market-Maker (E-DPM) for the new MSCI options contracts.
“Last year, nearly 100 million options traded industrywide on the popular EFA and EEM ETFs. CBOE’s ability to now also offer cash-settled, European-style options on these popular indexes enables us to better respond to the needs of institutional customers who wish to trade them,” says CBOE Chief Executive Officer Edward Tilly. “In addition, the settlement times for the options will match the futures on these products, creating still more trading opportunities for our customers.”
Options on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the MSCI EAFE Index are designed to enable investors to efficiently hedge their non-U.S. equity portfolio exposures or to diversify their portfolios.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index captures large- and mid-cap representation across 23 emerging-market countries. With over 800 constituents, the index covers approximately 85 percent of the free-float-adjusted market capitalisation in each country.
The MSCI EAFE Index is recognised as the pre-eminent benchmark in the United States to measure international equity performance. It comprises MSCI country indexes that represent developed markets outside of North America: Europe, Australasia and the Far East. The MSCI EAFE Index is calculated in U.S. dollars on a real-time basis, and its values are disseminated every 60 seconds during market trading hours.
Options on the MSCI Emerging Markets and EAFE Indexes are the first of six MSCI Indexes expected to launch in 2015. Later this year, CBOE also plans to offer options on the MSCI ACWI Index, MSCI USA Index, MSCI World Index and the MSCI ACWI ex-USA Index, subject to regulatory approval.
