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Here is a list of the issues we’re currently planning to
cover in the FpML commodities offsite next week. Could you please send
comments to the commodities list by Tuesday morning if there are any issues
that we’ve missed that you would like to cover, or if you have any comments on
the priority of the issues we’ve identified? The issues include, in priority order: 1) definition of the commodity underlyer, to be used in
products such as commodity swaps and total return swaps. (review existing
draft FpML model, recent JP Morgan proposal, and Goldman Sachs proposal). 2) amount of detail needed to define a commodity index
in a commodity swap
- is ISDA reference price enough, or do we need additional information defining
the pricing dates (e.g. first nearby except 5, last 3 business dates of the
month, etc.), the averaging rules, etc.? 3) Do we need to consider support for multi-asset swaps,
e.g. crack spreads? How important are these? 4) Do we need to consider FX translation? How
important is this? Is the existing definition in the draft
commodities model (based on equity definitions) sufficient, or do we need to be
able to specify FX rate observation dates, averaging rules, and conversion
methods (e.g. FX convert then average vs. average then convert)? 5) Units and notional questions. What volumes/notional
quantities do we need to capture? For example, for swaps whose notional
is expressed in volume per day, do we need to list total volume per month (or
other calculation period)? Do we need to record total volume for
the whole transaction? Do we need to consider conversions between weight
and volume measures (e.g. specific gravity)? 6) Overall priorities. What are the top priorities in terms
of products (i.e. commodities), trade types (swaps, options, etc.), etc.? Some of the areas that we DON’T currently have on the list
of topics to be covered (except as above) include: a)
topics related to physical delivery. b)
non-energy products c)
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