BrokerTec’s RV products create a single market to trade U.S. Treasury benchmark spreads, bringing the efficiency of implied orders from our futures inter-commodity spreads to cash bonds for the first time.
Leveraging the power of CME Globex, RV merges liquidity from the central limit order book (CLOB) with a single-threaded matching engine ‒ eliminating legging risk, providing inside liquidity, and increasing matching opportunities when trading benchmark spreads.
The RV product suite includes 21 curve spreads and 8 butterfly spreads, providing a full view of the relationships between 2-year, 3-year, 5-year, 7-year, and 10-year Treasury notes and 20-year and 30-year Treasury bonds.
Whether trading outright or implied spreads, RV orders are guaranteed to execute both legs of the trade.
All RV spreads are executable to 1/10th of a basis point (0.00100), enabling savings from $32 per million (2-year/3-year spread) to $167 per million (10-year/30-year spread).
RV orders will be worked directly in the outright order books on a first-in, first-out basis after all non-implied orders – increasing fill probability and liquidity across all spreads.
Implied orders are likely to incur additional yield as a result of rounding. This savings is 100% allocated to the RV order and could reflect material savings.
RV is integrated into the BrokerTec central limit order book, and accessible via the same STP, API, and front-end connectivity.
BrokerTec RV products are distinct markets for spreads on U.S. Treasury benchmarks. Trades can be executed in a single order, providing the opportunity to trade the yield curve more efficiently and without legging risk.
Instrument | Product Code | Ratio |
---|---|---|
2Y/3Y | UB2:03 | 3:2 |
2Y/5Y | UB2:05 | 7:3 |
2Y/7Y | UB2:07 | 3:1 |
2Y/10Y | UB2:10 | 4:1 |
2Y/20Y | UB2:20 | 7:1 |
2Y/30Y | UB2:30 | 9:1 |
3Y/5Y | UB3:05 | 3:2 |
3Y/7Y | UB3:07 | 2:1 |
3Y/10Y | UB3:10 | 3:1 |
3Y/20Y | UB3:20 | 5:1 |
3Y/30Y | UB3:30 | 6:1 |
5Y/7Y | UB5:07 | 4:3 |
5Y/10Y | UB5:10 | 2:1 |
5Y/20Y | UB5:20 | 3:1 |
5Y/30Y | UB5:30 | 4:1 |
7Y/10Y | UB7:10 | 4:3 |
7Y/20Y | UB7:20 | 2:1 |
7Y/30Y | UB7:30 | 3:1 |
10Y/20Y | U10:20 | 5:3 |
10Y/30Y | U10:30 | 2:1 |
20Y/30Y | U20:30 | 5:4 |
INSTRUMENT | PRODUCT CODE | RATIO |
---|---|---|
2Y/3Y/5Y | RB235 | 2:3:1 |
2Y/5Y/10Y | RB2510 | 5:4:1 |
3Y/5Y/7Y | RB357 | 4:5:2 |
3Y/7Y/10Y | RB3710 | 3:3:1 |
5Y/7Y/10Y | RB5710 | 2:3:1 |
5Y/10Y/30Y | R51030 | 7:8:2 |
7Y/10Y/20Y | R71020 | 5:7:2 |
10Y/20Y/30Y | RB123 | 4:5:2 |
The spread is traded at a +/- yield differential with inverted prices (bid higher than offer). The outright legs will trade in prices requiring price-to-yield and yield-to-price conversions.
The key to RV products is the implied functionality, which allows orders for a spread to match with passive orders in BrokerTec’s outright CLOB if the order would fill completely at the given yield or better. This deepens liquidity and allows for efficient execution of spread orders.
FaK, FoK, FaS, and hidden/iceberg orders. “Only Best” is not currently supported for RV products.
Only implied “in” market data is disseminated, being orders on the legs (outrights) that are used to create implied orders in the RV spread market.
Currently not prevented for RV orders implying against the outright orderbooks.
CME STP supports both implied and non-implied Curve Ratio (RV) Spreads and Butterfly (RB) Spreads for U.S. Treasury Actives.
RV products are available via the iLink API and through BTEC’s Global Front End (GFE). Product enabling is required, please speak with your BTEC account rep to kick off setup.
Buying 25 lots of UST 10Y/30Y (2:1) at a yield spread of -22.7bp will buy 50M 10Y and sell 25M 30Y, with the 10Y yield being 22.7bp lower than the 30Y yield.
Selling 5 lots of UST 3Y/5Y (5:3) at a yield spread of 30.8bp will sell 25M 3Y and buy 15M 5Y, with the 3Y yield being 30.8bp higher than the 10Y yield.
Buying 20 lots of UST 5Y/10Y/30Y (4:4:1) at a yield spread of 14.2bp will buy 80M 5Y, sell 80M 10Y, and buy 20M 30Y, with the sum of the 5Y and 30Y yield being 14.2bp higher than two times the 10Y yield.
Selling 10 lots of UST 2Y/3Y/5Y (2:3:1) at a yield spread of 11.5bp will sell 20M 2Y, buy 30M 3Y, and sell 10M 30Y, with the sum of the 2Y and 5Y yield being 11.5bp higher than two times the 3Y yield.
Example: A participant believes that the curve will steepen, they buy 10 lots of UST 5Y/10Y (2:1) at -9.5bp (equivalent to a -0.095% yield differential), matching with another spread order. |
Price Assignment
|
Leg quantity assignment Each leg quantity trades in a predetermined ratio that approximates DV01 neutrality. For the UST 5Y/10Y (2:1), buying 10 lots at -9.5bps would receive:
|
Example: A participant believes that the 5-Year is priced high relative to the 2-Year and 10-Year, they buy 5 lots of the UST 2Y/5Y/10Y 10M (5:4:1) at 40bp (equivalent to a 0.40% yield differential), matching with another spread order. |
Price Assignment
|
Leg quantity assignment Each leg quantity trades in a predetermined ratio that approximates DV01 neutrality. Buying 5 lots of the UST 2Y/5Y/10Y (5:4:1) at 40bps would receive:
|
By trading in a yield format, RV spread orders that match with implied orders are frequently done at prices better than the original spread order due to rounding. This creates an excess efficiency, which is allocated 100% to the RV order.
Based on empirical analysis of the $460 billion in volume transacted in RV Curve in 2022, these excess efficiencies saved clients $8 per million on average, equating to over $3.8 million in aggregate.
PAIR |
ADV ($MM) |
DAILY SPREADS | SAVING / $MM | SAVING / SPREAD |
---|---|---|---|---|
10Y/30Y | 277 | 92 | $14.87 | $44.78 |
3Y/5Y | 303 | 59 | $14.85 | $25.04 |
2Y/3Y | 271 | 54 | $3.09 | $15.49 |
5Y/10Y | 157 |
52 | $9.71 | $29.26 |
7Y/10Y | 169 | 33 | $8.84 | $45.05 |
5Y/7Y | 147 | 29 | $8.80 | $45.19 |
10Y/20Y | 84 | 27 | $16.24 | $50.61 |
2Y/5Y | 142 | 20 | $3.59 | $25.22 |
5Y/30Y | 93 | 18 | $8.09 | $40.59 |
2Y/10Y | 78 | 13 | $6.11 | $36.51 |
OTHER | 136 | 34 | $13.93 | $39.13 |
TOTAL | $1,857 | 431 | $8.17 | $35.19 |
BrokerTec RV products are available to trade on the BrokerTec central limit order book, powered by CME Globex. Existing BrokerTec clients can contact their account rep to get access through the iLink API and BrokerTec Global Front End.
VENDOR | RV Curve STATUS | RV Butterfly Status |
---|---|---|
Broadway Technology | Live | |
CQG | Live | |
ION Trading | Live | Live |
Stellar | Live | Live |
For those who are not yet customers of the BrokerTec central limit order book, click here to request a demo.
BrokerTec Americas LLC. (“BAL”) is a registered broker-dealer with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (https://brokercheck.finra.org/), and is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (www.SIPC.org). BAL offers products and services in relation to U.S. Treasury Benchmark instruments, Repurchase and Reverse Repurchase instruments, including U.S. Treasury, Government of Canada, Corporate and Mortgage-backed products. BAL does not provide services to private or retail customers. All investments involve risk of loss, particularly in terms of fluctuations in value and yield. If an investment is denominated in a currency other than your base currency, exchange rate fluctuations may have a favorable or unfavorable impact. Further, there are risks associated with investing in fixed income asset classes that include, but are not limited to, market risk, interest rate risk, default risk, event risk, credit risk, and government security risk. Estimated savings and excess efficiency calculations are based on an empirical analysis of prior volume. However, past performance is no guarantee of future results.