Manage risk and maximize opportunities trading OTC with StoneX

The StoneX trade desk can tailor OTC products to meet a wide range of risk profiles and market views. Products range from simple swaps to customized and exotic options to structured products. Below is an overview of the four principal product types we trade:

• Lookalike Options and Swaps: Lookalike Options and Swaps are also known as Plain Vanilla Options or Swaps and are SXM’s most basic OTC product. “Lookalikes” contain the same hedge and optionality features as their exchange-traded equivalent so far as contract specifications of strike price, contract size and expiration date
• Customizable Options: Customizable Options are Lookalike Options with the additional benefit of customizable strike price, contract size and expiration date. While the customizability allows this product to rein in a better hedge for the customer, it does limit the Customized Options optionality from being fungible with the exchange. Due to this lack of fungibility, Customized Options cannot be translated to an exchange-traded equivalent unless and until the option expires to a swap. The swap can then be translated into an exchange-traded equivalent futures position.
• Exotic Options: StoneX Markets utilizes the Exotic Options of Asian, Digital and Barrier options. Because the exchange does not have anything similar to these products, the options are not fungible with an exchange-traded option. However, as with all of our OTC Instruments, credit financing is available to offset margin costs and if the option expires into a swap an EFRP can translate the swap to a corresponding exchange-traded futures position.
• Asian options determine payout by figuring the average of the underlying price over a pre-set period of time. Example, an average of the futures settlement each Friday for a month.
• Digital options also known as Binary or All-Or-Nothing options pay the owner a fixed amount if the market settles at a predetermined level. On the reverse, if it does not settle at that level, the owner receives zero.
• Barrier options also known as “knock out/knock in” “down-and-out/down-and-in” or “up-and-out/up-and-in” are based on the market touching a pre-determined level where the option is either activated (knocked-in) or deactivated (knocked-out).
• Structured Products: Structured Products/Accumulators allow a Customer to “accumulate” short swaps above the current market or long swaps below the current market so long as the market stays within specified range. This range is decided upon by the Broker/Customer with the range limitations typically being marked by an accumulation level on one end and a barrier level on the other end.

To learn more about how these benefits may apply to your specific market view and risk management needs, please contact us.

OTC, or over-the-counter markets, are decentralized platforms where financial instruments such as derivatives are traded directly between two parties without the involvement of an exchange. OTC markets are often used for customized, complex, or illiquid products that cannot be traded on public exchanges. In the commodities market, OTC trading is used to hedge against price volatility risk, which is a common concern for farmers/producers, grain elevators/grain originators, and food and beverage manufacturers.

StoneX can help you navigate a comprehensive array of choices for your hedging needs – from plain vanilla options and swaps to lookalike options, exotic options and structured products.