interest rate future

An Interest Rate Future is a futures contract with an interest-bearing instrument as the underlying asset.Examples include Treasury-bill futures, Treasury-bond futures and Eurodollar futures.The global market for exchange-traded interest rate futures is notionally valued by the Bank for International Settlements at $5,794,200 million in 2005.
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An exchange-traded forward contract. In such a contract, the purchase or sale of an interest rate instrument, e.g. a bond, is agreed on the contract date to be delivered at a future date, at a given price. Usually no actual delivery takes place; the contract is normally closed out before the agreed maturity.