Variance Futures replicate the pay-off profile of a Variance Swap using a daily margined futures contract. Instead of a final settlement payment at the end of the life time the pay-off profile of the Variance Swap is generated as the sum of all variation margin payments throughout the holding period of the Variance Futures contract. Variance Futures are traded in a quantity of notional Vega, which represents a risk amount that is expressed in euro and at prices of volatility. Volatility is the annualised average price fluctuation of the EURO STOXX 50® Index that is expected until the maturity of the contract month. Volatility is expressed in percentage points.
Underlying
The future average price fluctuation (variance) of the EURO STOXX 50® Index.
Contract value
EUR 1 per Variance Futures point.
Settlement
Cash settlement, payable on the first exchange day following the final settlement day.
Price calculation and minimum price change
The futures price is calculated in Variance Futures points with four decimal places. The minimum price change is 0.0001 points, equivalent to a value of EUR 0.0001.
Trading and order maintenance
Variance Futures are traded on-exchange in terms of notional Vega at volatility. Transactions via the Block Trade Service are entered in Variance Futures contracts at final Variance Futures prices.
The minimum order size is 1 notional Vega, the minimum price change is 0.05 percentage points in volatility.
Upon matching notional Vega is converted into Variance Futures contracts and rounded to the nearest integer, at least to one futures. The volatility is converted into Variance Futures prices as well.
The corresponding conversion formulas and parameters are published here.
Contract months
Up to 24 months: The three nearest successive calendar months, the three following quarterly months of the March, June, September and December cycle, and the two following semi-annual months of the June and December cycle thereafter.
Last trading day and final settlement day
Last trading day is the exchange day preceding the final settlement day. Final settlement day is the third Friday of each maturity month if this is an exchange day; otherwise the exchange day immediately preceding that day. Close of trading in the maturing futures on the last trading day is at 17:30 CET. There is no trading on the final settlement day of each maturity month.
Daily settlement price
The daily settlement price is determined through the conversion of volatility into the Variance Futures price according to different formulae.
The corresponding conversion formulas and parameters are published here.
Final settlement price
The final settlement price is established by Eurex Exchange on the final settlement day. The final realized variance is based on the average of the EURO STOXX 50® Index calculations between 11:50 CET until 12:00 CET.
Position limit
A Clearing Member may not own or control contracts exceeding EUR 10 million Vega notional. The position limit holds for all contract months combined. It is computed by summing up the absolute values of net positions for all contract months, i.e. Clearing Members may not recognize offsets across maturities.
Admitted to the Eurex Block Trade Service with a Minimum Block Trade Size of 1 contract.