Index Education Regional Relevancy of S&P 500® and Dow Jones Industrial Average® Futures in Asia Contributors Global markets are increasingly integrated, driven by the diversified global supply chain, deregulation of capital markets, and technological advances. Tianyin Cheng Senior Director The interconnection of global markets has been the key driver for co- Strategy Indices movement of market returns, especially during periods of crisis. This has
[email protected] important consequences in terms of portfolio hedging and risk management. Izzy Wang Analyst Meanwhile, with the continued growth in exchange-traded derivatives Strategy Indices supported by the need for increased price transparency and liquidity,
[email protected] investors have sought to efficiently integrate listed derivatives into their portfolios. This paper presents the regional relevancy of S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) futures for hedging and risk management use by Asian investors. While the ecosystem around the S&P 500 and DJIA covers multiple areas, including trading of options, ETFs, mutual funds, etc., we are only capturing part of the complexity of Asian trading by limiting the study scope to futures. We evaluate the usefulness of those instruments through the following metrics. • Liquidity: As shown by aggregate U.S. dollar notional total value traded for the futures contracts on the two U.S. benchmarks during Asian trading hours.1 • Co-movements of markets: As measured by correlations between the two U.S. benchmarks and seven major Asian market benchmarks, based on daily returns of the futures prices at Asian end of day. • Flexibility: As indicated by contract size and trading hours of the futures on the two U.S.