The Equity Research Center on cmegroup.com has made it easier to give customers the information they're seeking.
Want to know how to spread the S&P 500 versus Dow Jones index futures? Need to do a "quick and dirty" calculation to determine how the MSCI EAFE futures contract performs versus the underlying index? CME Group's online Equity Index Products Research Center is a new resource for market participants seeking tools and information that will help them make better trading decisions.
"Research provided by brokerage houses has ever-larger ground to cover, given the increasing complexity and breadth of our product offerings as well as the overthecounter markets. We have noticed that customers were turning to us more and more to fi ll in some of these gaps in information and ideas," says Richard Co, director of financial research and product development at CME Group. "The Equity Research Center provides customers with easy access to this information."
Currently, the Equity Research Center includes papers and statistical analyses. Statistical data that depicts trade execution quality on the CME Globex electronic trading platform for equity futures products is next on the agenda, says Co. The center will make some of the more frequently requested studies – such as historical roll cost analysis - more accessible and customer-friendly.
Until recently, research and strategy papers were located on the CME's and CBOT's Web site product pages or could be requested from the product group or research department. Because cmegroup.com has greater capabilities than its predecessor Web sites, CME Group is experimenting with new tools to help customers locate relevant information or topics quickly - such as a Morningstar-esque stylebox device that sorts the information by market segment and style. For example, customers looking for information about CME Group's core, large-cap equity index products can click on a box to be directed to the appropriate information, from papers about spreading yen-denominated versus dollardenominated Nikkei 225 futures, to hedging the equal-weight S&P 500 index.
While customers do not need to wear hardhats during ongoing construction, updates to the center will make it easier for customers to sort through the information.
"In addition, the online infrastructure that we are building for the Equity Research Center can be extended to other product groups," Co says. "While each product research center will have similar information and tools, we'll also be able to customize to meet the needs of that particular product group's customer base."
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