Block Trades – TAS, TAM and BTIC

This module will focus on three different kinds of block trades: Basis Trade at Index Close (BTIC), Trade at Settlement (TAS) and Trade at Marker (TAM) trades.

BTIC

A BTIC block trade is a futures transaction that is priced with the applicable cash index close price. For a BTIC block trade executed on a given Trading day on or before the scheduled close of the underlying primary securities market, the corresponding futures price shall be made by reference to the Index closing value for the current trading day, plus or minus the agreed upon basis.

BTIC block trades are not permitted on the last day of trading in an expiring contract month. A list of BTIC block-eligible products and block minimum thresholds is available on the CME Group website.

TAS

Certain block-eligible futures contract months may be executed as block trades and assigned the current day’s settlement price or any valid price increment ten ticks higher or lower than the settlement price, this is a TAS block trade.

TAM

 Other block-eligible futures contract months may be executed as block trades and assigned the current day’s marker price or any valid price increment ten ticks higher or lower than the marker price, this is a TAM block trade.

The products and contract months in which TAS and TAM block trades are permitted are set forth in the list of block trade eligible products available on the CME Group website. This is part of a course on block trades. For official regulatory guidance on block trades, reference the applicable Market Regulation Advisory Notice.