A futures contract which has an overnight index swap as underlying. An overnight index swap (OIS) futures tracks the overnight effective federal funds rate (which is a benchmark of the U.S short-term interest rate market). This type of futures provides an effective tool for hedging longer term OIS exposure. It also allows investors and traders to take views on the Federal Open Market Committee (FMOC) policies. In Canada, this contract tracks the compounded daily overnight repo rate (COPRA) quoted in terms of an overnight repo rate index, over the period of the contract month.
In the U.S, this futures matures in three months, and start dates for an OIS futures coincide with IMM expiration dates, and as such it provides an instrumental tool to trade the spread between 3-month LIBOR and 3-month overnight rates.
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