The FTSE Cürex FX Index Series provides the next generation of FX valuation and performance benchmarking for global capital markets. By establishing real-time bid and offer spot FX indices on 192 currency pairs (FTSE Cürex FIX), from multiple independent contributors and at multiple depths of liquidity, global capital markets benefit from improved clarity when viewing previously opaque foreign exchange pricing. William Dale, chairman and chief executive at Cürex Group explains that the new index series “represents a step forward in the evolution of the global foreign exchange marketplace [and] enables … both buy side and sell side leaders seeking to provide more competitive products and liquidity to the world’s capital markets.”
New executable benchmark currency baskets include the flagship FTSE Cürex USD/G8 Index, an equally weighted, real-time index designed to provide an improved valuation of the US Dollar. The index consists of seven major currencies representative of global finance and commodity trading, plus the Chinese Renminbi—the most important emerging Asian reserve currency. These new benchmark FX Indices also can be used to measure the performance of active currency strategies, and provide new tools for investors seeking to express a ‘risk on/risk off’ trade.
New proprietary and patented technologies have been developed by Cürex Group specifically to connect previously fragmented foreign exchange market liquidity with investment products linked to FTSE Cürex FX Indices. These technologies, say FTSE Group, allow asset managers and their service providers to build custom FX Indices from proprietary or third party asset pricing models for both analytic and product development purposes. Cürex Intellectual Property will enable a new generation of both exchange-traded and OTC financial products that are linked to FTSE Cürex FX Indices and utilise Cürex technologies designed to directly link institutional foreign exchange liquidity to financial products tracking FTSE Cürex FX Indices. This new capability will allow passive asset managers to reduce tracking error and liquidity providers such as Delta One desks to improve their hedging and risk management practices.
Benchmark Execution (BE) and Benchmark or Better Execution (BOBE) models can now be employed by third-party electronic and voice brokering FX platforms via principal transactions or STP to the FTSE Cürex FX Index liquidity pool. These new benchmark FX Indices also can be used to measure relative performance of active currency overlay strategies. Investors seeking to express a ‘risk on / risk off’ trade can alsouse these indices to implement this trade.
