Exploring Commodity Trading Activity: An Integrated Analysis of Swaps and Futures
40 Pages Posted: 23 Dec 2016
Date Written: November 2016
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of new, regulatory data on commodity swaps, focused on West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil. We find that commercial end-users have a much larger footprint in the WTI swaps space than financial end-users do. Commercials have a much larger exposure in swaps than in futures and are net short in both markets. Financial end-users are smaller in swaps than in futures and are net long in both markets. Swap Dealers perform a substantial amount of intermediation among WTI longs, WTI shorts, and index investors; consequently, net dealer exposure to hedge in futures markets is far less than the gross swap exposure.
Keywords: swaps market, futures market, WTI crude derivatives
JEL Classification: G13, L71, Q41
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