February 2025 Rates Recap

Record liquidity, visualized

The 2024 edition of our annual chart book is now available, offering a concise view into key measures of liquidity across Interest Rate futures and options.

View charts covering:

  • Liquidity metrics (volume, OI, LOIH, cost to trade)
  • Short-Term Interest Rates
  • U.S. Treasuries
  • Swap futures
  • Credit futures
  • Mortgage futures

Now live: Cross-Currency Basis futures (XEEA Curncy)

EUR/USD cross-currency risk can now be managed with a single futures contract.

Meet Cross-Currency Basis futures, an efficient way to hold and manage risk in EUR/USD IMM-dated Three-month contracts that are cash settled to the CME EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Index.

The index is derived from observed prices in our SOFR, ESTR and EUR/USD futures markets. Find out more about this new trading solution and explore the key details of the contract below: 


Primary or secondary: two ways to hedge mortgage risk

With the launch of Mortgage Rate futures last month, participants can now manage risk efficiently across both primary (Mortgage Rate) and secondary (TBA) linked contracts.

Mortgage Rate futures have traded 269 contracts since their launch three weeks ago, as market participants begin to onboard. 

TBA futures open interest is up 35% YoY, at over 7K contracts, with YTD ADV of 770 contracts. 

This expanded toolkit opens up spread trading opportunities, more pinpoint hedging and new ways to achieve margin offsets. Explore our suite for details. 

Mortgage Rate futures

TBA futures


Credit futures momentum continues to start 2025

Building on the successful December roll, Credit futures have soared with new end-user activity and additional participants joining the ecosystem to start the year. Momentum was seen in terms of: 

  • Expanding book depth and narrowing bid-asks
  • Record outright volumes
  • Record open interest

Source: CME Group, data as of February 05, 2025.

That's not all, High Yield Duration-Hedged Index contracts are coming March 17 (see the SER).

Product spotlight: SOFR vs. Fed Funds spreads

STIR traders looking to manage ongoing SOFR-EFFR basis volatility are turning to SOFR vs. Fed Funds futures inter-commodity spreads (ICS).

In January, SR1-ZQ ICS volume topped 100K spreads/day for the second month in a row accounting for 50% of SR1 volumes.


Analyze key spreads


FYI on RFQs

Did you know RFQ (Request for Quote) functionality can be used for both futures and options strategies?

This technique allows participants to indicate interest in a trade, prompting market makers to respond. It can be especially valuable in markets with a range of instruments or those where liquidity is still building.

Understanding RFQs


CME Securities Clearing update

In our efforts to help clients navigate coming Treasury clearing requirements, CMESC has now filed its application with the SEC to register as a clearing agency.

Pending this regulatory review, our CME Securities Clearing service will provide capital-efficient clearing solutions for U.S. Treasury and Repo transactions. See our resources for more info and details on our cross-margining and capital efficiency programs.

Subscribe for key CMESC details


F-TIIE futures trading fee-free until April 30

With the shift away from the 28D TIIE benchmark, December and January produced the best two ADV months in F-TIIE futures history. February could continue this trend with the deployment of our automatic market-wide fee waiver until the end of April.

Explore the contracts now to maximize the value of the waiver and look for additional enhancements later this year as the ecosystem continues to expand.

See how to use F-TIIE futures


Get real-time insights on rates

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Find us @Interest_Rates.



Data as of February 6, 2025, unless otherwise specified.

* Pending regulatory approval

View an archive of the Rates Recap online at cmegroup.com/ratesrecap.

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