Most Active Names in Credit and Equity Derivatives – August 2023

I last looked at the most active trading names in CDS and TRS in May 2023, so today I will look at August 2023 data from US SEC Securities Based Data Repositorys (SBSDRs).

CDS on Sovereigns

Using SBSDRView, we can find the most active sovereigns for CDS trades in August 2023.

Most Active CDS on Sovereigns in August 2023
  • Showing the name, gross notional in millions of usd, trade count and rank in August (with change from prior month).
  • We could rank by notional but for CDS we prefer to use trade count as with $5million as the maximum disclosed notional for a single trade, we know from the data that this total gross notional is significantly understated, particularly for Sovereigns and less so for Corporates.
  • Brazil the most active name with 336 trades
  • Turkey, which was the most active in May, down to 6th with 209 trades
  • China with 229 trades is up six places to 3rd
  • Saudi Arabia with 69 trades, is up seven places

The above list was a selection for USD trades, the standard currency for CDS Sovereigns.

Changing to EUR, to see if we can find any trades on USA, as we did in April and May.

EUR CDS on Sovereigns – Aug 2023
  • We see 3 trades on USA, down from 16 in June and 34 in May
  • As the USA is the best credit there is in Capital markets, I expect to see these trade counts continuing to decrease or stop, particularily as the debt ceiling stand-off is resolved.

CDS on US Corporates

Next the twenty most active US corporates by trade count for August 2023.

Most Active CDS US Corporates in August 2023
  • Ford the top name with 134 trades, usually in the top 10 each month
  • Rite Aid in second, up 8 places
  • US Steel in third, up 85 places from the prior month
  • General Motors in fourth
  • Goodyear in fifth, up 42 places
  • Notable risers include Ford Motor Credit, Dish, Navient, American Axle and Boeing
  • Royal Caribbean Curises down in fifteenth, when in most months it is top 5 or 10
  • Many names with similar ranks and number of trades to prior months

CDS on EU Corporates

Next let’s look at the most active EU Corporates.

Most Active CDS EU Corporates in August 2023
  • Jaguar in top place with 95 trades, up 22 places
  • Banks/Financials well down the list, unlike May when they made 9 of the top 10
  • UBS now the highest in fourth
  • Rolls Royce in fifth is up 31 places
  • Lufthansa in eight is up 68 places
  • Mercedes in ninth is up 89
  • Other notables movers are Renault, BMW, Continental, Arcelor Mittal, Munich Re

TRS on US Equities

Let’s turn now to Equity markets and Total Return Swaps on US Stocks in August 2023 and rank by gross notional, as unlike CDS a far smaller portion of trades have capped notionals, with only trades > $250 million size being capped.

Most active TRS on US Stocks – August 2023
  • Johnson & Johnson in top spot with a massive $39billion of notional and 674 trades, of which 67 trades are at or above $250million notional each, representing $16.75 billion almost half the overall notional!
  • Apple and Microsoft, next, same as the prior month
  • Nvidia with $2.2 billion from 298 trades is in fourth, up 6 places
  • Akamai in eleventh, is up a massive 787 places!
  • Nikola Corp, the EV company is up even more with a 922 place jump
  • Other notable movers include, Energy Transfer, AMC, PayPal, BMS

TRS on EU Equities

Next the twenty most active names in EUR.

Most Active TRS on EUR Stocks – August 2023
  • Endesa, the Spanish Electricity firm, in top place with a massive $13 billion notinal from 1,540 trades, up 60 places, again a lot of capped trades at $250m notional
  • Hermes and LVMH in second and third
  • KBC, the Belgian bank-insuarnce group in fourth, up 88 places
  • Air France-KLM in fifth, up 107 places
  • Only two financials in the top 20, KBC and BNP Paribas
  • Notable movers are Adyen and VW

TRS on UK Equities

Next the twenty most active UK names.

Most Active TRS on GBP Stocks – August 2023
  • HSBC in top place with > $1.5 billion from 2,432 trades, is up 8 places
  • Shell and Astra Zeneca in second and third
  • Glencore, the commodity company, in fourth is up 13 places
  • Segro, the real estate investment trust in sixth is up 15 places
  • BT group the largest mover in 12th, is up 35 places

TRS on JPY Equities

Next the twenty most active JPY names.

Most Active TRS on JPY Stocks – August 2023
  • Tokyp Electron on top with > $308 million from 436 trades, is up 6 places
  • Recruit Holdings, the HR company, in second with > $290 million from just 45 trades is up 709 places
  • Advantest Corp in third with > $287 million from 508 trades, is up 3 places
  • Notable movers include Canon, Komatsu, Tokio Marine, Trend Micro, Meiji Holdings, Kobe Steel
  • Tokio Marine the only Financial sector firm in the list

TRS on AUD Equities

And before we end, lets’ also take a look at AUD.

Most Active TRS on AUD Stocks – August 2023
  • Macquarie in top place with > $600 million from 565 trades, is up 14 places
  • Woodside Energy in fifth, is up 129 places
  • Notable movers Treasury Wine, James Hardie, Whitehaven and LendLease

In Summary

  • There is a lot of data available from the US SEC SBSDRs.
  • SBSDRView provides new transparency on OTC Derivatives in Credit & Equity
  • Our Most Active view highlights the names that trade most frequently each day/week/month
  • Providing new information and insights
  • Listen to the Podcast on Apple or Spotify.
  • Please contact us, if you are interested in using SBSDRView.

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