1996 the outstanding notional value of credit derivatives (credit default swaps (CDSs)) was $40 billion. By the end of 2001 it was approximately $1.2 trillion. By 2004 it was expected to be $4.8 trillion. Credit default swaps (CDSs) accounted for roughly 45% of the overall credit derivatives market in 2002. In 1997 there were three kinds of CDSs: corporate, bank and sovereign. CreditTrade was one of the major trading platforms for credit derivatives in 2003. Creditex was the first inter-dealer broker to offer electronic CDS trading in 2004. Sovereign CDSs, which benefited from the standardisation of contract form and definitions in 1998 and 1999 as well as successful execution in the case of recent defaults, were considered the most liquid credit derivative instruments in emerging markets. Particularly as their liquidity increases, sovereign CDSs had the potential to supplement and increase efficiency in underlying sovereign bond markets. Between 2004 and the first half of 2007, the creation of credit derivatives indexes, credit default swap indexes, which essentially involve investors selling credit protection on a group of companies, was one of the factors that helped to drive spreads tighter. Since 5 February 2008 the index spread widened by 25 basis points to a record high just above 110 basis, 60 basis points wider than 1 January 2008 and 90 basis points higher than they were prior to the credit crisis, when basis points were at all-time lows. At 110 basis points it would cost "110,000 euros a year to insure 10 million euros of debt against default." By mid-February 2008, as complex credit instruments unravelled, credit derivatives indexes in Europe set repeated new record highs. The Markit iTraxx Europe index ITRAC5EA=GFI had displaced the iTraxx Crossover index ITCRS5EA=GFI, which was made up of 50 mostly "junk"-rated companies. The Europe index sharply underperformed the iTraxx Crossover index ITCRS5EA=GFI. Trading The most widely traded of the indices is the iTraxx Europe index, also known simply as 'The Main', composed of the most liquid 125 CDS referencing European investment grade credits, subject to certain sector rules as determined by the IIC and also as determined by the SEC. There is also significant volume, in nominal values, of trading in the HiVol and Crossover (also referred to as Xover) indices. HiVol is a subset of the main Europe index consisting of what are seen as the most risky 30 constituents at the time the index is