E-quivalents Overview
E-quivalents is a Chicago Mercantile Exchange application that utilizes real-time updates of CME FX Futures prices and quantities, paired with user defined forward points, to calculate spot FX equivalent prices and quantities for each currency pair.
E-quivalents was designed to help market participants who are accustomed to viewing, analyzing and trading FX in spot market convention. The application displays the top five bids and offers in the book and allows market participants to see the best bid and offer in spot equivalent rates. Additionally, the application displays corresponding sizes and market depth, as well as high, low and last trade.
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Definition of Data Elements
Please move your mouse over the area of the image to get more detailed information.
Direct and Indirect Spot Equivalent
There are two conventions used in quoting foreign currency prices, which are direct terms and indirect terms. A direct currency pair price is quoted as the number of US Dollars it would take to buy one unit of foreign currency. Indirect quotation prices contracts in terms of the foreign currency; the price is quoted as the amount of foreign currency which equals one US Dollar.
All CME® dollar-based FX futures prices are quoted in direct terms against the U.S. dollar (Dollars per Yen), while the spot market quotes certain currency pairs in direct terms and other pairs in indirect terms (Yen per Dollar).
The OTC market uses indirect quotation (foreign currency per U.S. dollar) for all major currencies excluding the euro, the British pound, the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar, which are listed using direct quotation.
E-quivalents effectively converts currency futures prices to OTC market equivalent prices, providing a valuable tool for currency traders accustomed to dealing in OTC market convention. The following products are listed on E-quivalents and are grouped according to pricing convention:
- Direct: Euro FX, British Pound, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar, Euro/Japanese Yen, Euro/British Pound, Euro/Swiss Franc
- Indirect: Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar, Mexican Peso, Russian Ruble
- Not Applicable: CME$INDEX
Spot Equivalent Rates and Quantities
The E-quivalents converter will provide the trader with Price and Quantity information that is consistent with spot market convention, in order to allow competitive market participants to quickly and easily compare prices and liquidity. To produce spot equivalent prices for direct currency pairs, E-quivalents adds the user entered forward points (positive or negative points) to the futures price. To produce spot equivalent prices for Indirect currency pairs, E-quivalents inverts the futures price (1/Futures Price) and adds the user defined positive or negative forward points.
To produce spot equivalent quantity for direct currency pairs, E-quivalents multiplies the number of contracts at the best bid or offer by the contract size and divides that by one million. This produces the number of millions of foreign currency available at the best price. To produce spot equivalent quantity for indirect currency pairs, E-quivalents multiplies the number of contracts at the best bid or offer by the contract size, divides that by one million and then divides by the spot equivalent bid or offer. This produces the number of millions of US Dollars available at the best price. CME$INDEX is also listed on E-quivalents for the convenience of the trader; as an index, the price is not manipulated by the application.
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- Select a contract to view
- Enter forward points and click submit
