They've both been given approval...ICE was first but CME/Citadel got approval recently. I am hoping ICE wins in the long run because the CME/Citadel proposal was going to co-mingle clearing CDS with futures and that is not a good idea.
CDS are not evil... They're OTC contracts, so you would need to sign an ISDA with your prospective counterparty and post collateral.
The world needs to realize, just because you lost on a trade does not make something evil. There are many guys out there who believe CDS are the best thing in the world. Those are the guys who brought down AIG etc.
I have no idea about CDS and frankly No idea where to begin... What are the Best Books on CDS? Where to begin? How do companies get a CDS? (I want some Small Business Protection/Insurance) lol Any info for a Novice CDS player is greatly welcomed.
Start small by dropping $20 bills into the toilet. Slowly increase the amounts until you get a government bailout, then pay yourself a huge bonus from the bailout funds.
That's a silly thing to say... There's nothing very badly wrong with CDS as an instrument, much like there's nothing wrong with vanilla interest rate swaps. Even selling options/insurance on financial products at what turned out to be wildly wrong prices is not wrong. The ONLY wrong thing is to do it in a size that can take down an economy of a small country. So it's not a problem with CDS, it's a problem with bad risk management of these positions.
They aren't on the "Webice" platform at the moment from my understanding. I think Creditex has a platform, and thats what people are using to trad them on. (Ice owns creditex).
Is one CDS tradeable with another? Do they not both represent the rights to the debt owed on different assets by different parties? How could they be traded?