An interest rate futures is a financial derivative (a futures contract) with an interest-bearing instrument as the underlying asset.
Examples include Treasury-bill futures, Treasury-bond futures and Eurodollar futures.
The global market for exchange-traded interest rate futures is notionally valued by the Bank for International Settlements at $5,794,200 million in 2005.
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Interest rate futures are used to hedge against the risk of that interest rates will move in an adverse direction, causing a cost to the company.
For example, borrowers face the risk of interest rates rising. Futures use the inverse relationship between interest rates and bond prices to hedge against the risk of rising interest rates. A borrower will enter to sell a future today. Then if interest rates rise in the future, the value of the future will fall (as it is linked to the underlying asset, bond prices), and hence a profit can be made when closing out of the future (i.e buying the future).
Treasury futures are contracts sold on the Globex market for March, June, September and December contracts. As pressure to raise interest rates rises, futures contracts will reflect that speculation as a decline in price. Price and yield will always be in an inversely correlated relationship.
A short-term interest rate (STIR) future is a futures contract that derives its value from the interest rate at maturation. Common short-term interest rate futures are Eurodollar, Euribor, Euroyen, Short Sterling and Euroswiss, which are calculated on LIBOR at settlement, with the exception of Euribor which is based on Euribor. This value is calculated as 100 minus the interest rate.
A great deal of the trading on these contracts is exchange traded multi-leg strategies, essentially bets upon the future shape of the yield curve and/or basis. Both Liffe and CME use implied pricing.
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