Products Traded on Swaptions Desk

What sorts of products are traded on a dealer's swaptions desk? I know that they trade caps/floors, European swaptions, and Treasury bond options, but what else usually falls under their purview? For example, since the GSEs issue lots of callable bonds (which have embedded options), does the desk trade those? What are some of the more "exotic" derivatives traded on the desk?

9 Comments
 

There are a mixture of rates and credit swaptions, a few more are credit index and inflation swaptions. These can get pretty exotic as I have seen a conditional knock in swaption on a long term constant maturity rate.

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costofcarrycertain commodities
I have never heard of this. My bank has a pretty large rates vol and swaptions desk and they definitely don't trade commodities. I'm not sure how this fits in...
 

Exotics include Berms, CMS, etc.

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hmm2For example, since the GSEs issue lots of callable bonds (which have embedded options), does the desk trade those?
A lot of banks have rates traders who handle agency and GSE debt. No reason for it to be involved in swaptions (though they'll probably sit close to each other in rates). All of these roles are in rates or rates vol - I think you're confusing the rates vol desk with individual swaptions traders, which is one of the main products traded on rates vol desks. (Hopefully that made sense...)
 
Best Response

All agency debt (covered bonds, callables, all) is traded by rates traders at my BB. Just like callable corporates are traded by cash traders, not credit derivative/options traders.

Swaptions are options with swaps underlying - if they are exercised the two counterparties enter into a swap agreement. Not all interest rate options are swaptions - there are also caps, floors, and many other variants. Make sure not to oversimplify that if you ever speak with rates vol traders (though each trader will probably trade many of those products). I'd play it safe and refer to the desk and traders as "rates vol", and he will say if he specializes in swaptions, or trading the vega or gamma ends of the yield curve (important difference from equity options traders), or whatever.

 

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