- 9 Oct 2025
- By CME Group
- Topics: Interest Rates
A new study from Coalition Greenwich reveals how cross-margin opportunities, like those available from CME Group’s Portfolio Margin program, are driving change in fixed income. See how these impressive savings are reshaping the market, including key findings around the impacts of clearing mandates and the importance of initial margin on total trading costs.
As uncertainty continues at the short-end of the curve, traders have embraced 2-Yr Treasury options as an efficient way to establish a position. September saw new records for both average daily volume (ADV) and open interest (OI), with ADV surging by more than 150% year-over-year (YoY).
Source: CME Group
While 2-Yr options were a standout, other parts of the curve also experienced solid growth in September, including:
- A new average daily open interest (ADOI) record for Ultra-10 Treasury options - up 285% YoY.
- Fresh highs in Tue/Thu options, the newest members of the suite, as OI hit 235K on September 25.
Credit futures were extremely active in the September roll period, reaching a new OI high of over 8,600 contracts on September 15.
ADV for the month was 5,860 contracts, a nearly 400% increase from a year ago.
High Yield open interest in particular is on the rise, with a recent block trade of over 900 contracts in High Yield futures (HYB), demonstrating the deep liquidity available. Strong and growing liquidity along with impressive margin offsets across the suite are continuing to drive growth in Credit futures.
Source: CME Group
A new era of cash vs. futures trading has arrived with the successful launch of the BrokerTec Chicago CLOB. This second U.S. Treasury CLOB is co-located side-by-side with our core futures and options markets outside Chicago.
Liquidity is quickly building across the curve in this new platform that offers inside pricing, increased precision and seamless integration into existing BTEC connectivity.
For options, please note that, effective September 21, several SOFR options are trading at a 1/4 tick, including:
- Four nearest quarterly contract months
- Serial months and monthly options
All other quarterly contracts will remain at a half tick.
On the futures side, an adjustment has been made to block trade rules in Three-Month SOFR contracts.
This includes a shift in the requirements for a block minimum threshold, which impacts multi-legged intra-commodity block trades.
Several new additions to the CME Group Rates lineup made great strides in Q3, including:
F-TIIE - A new record for quarterly ADOI at just over 700 contracts, up nearly 72% from the previous quarter.
X-CCY - Cross-Currency futures also saw new highs in ADV and ADOI in Q3, including a nearly 2x increase in ADOI compared to last quarter.
Data as of October 1, 2025, unless otherwise specified.
View an archive of the Rates Recap online at cmegroup.com/ratesrecap.
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