Dear all,I need to understand the conventions used by Bloomberg (or any other provider that publishes Credit Index spreads or tranche spreads) for the quotation of the iTraxx and iTraxx tranches. 1. iTraxxLet's consider the serie 7, maturity 10Y (start date : 20/03/2007, end date : 20/06/2017). Today, 24/08/2007, I want to buy a contract on this iTraxx and the quoted spread of the day on Bloomberg is 65bps, as the "Deal Spread"of this serie/maturity is 50bps.Question : how must I understand the quoted spread on Bloomberg?Possible answers : it is the fair premium of the iTraxx portfolio of 125 CDS :(a) starting 20/06/2007, ending 20/06/2017 ?(b) starting T+1, ending 20/06/2017 ?(c) other ?I know that I would have to pay 50bps (and not 65bps) quarterly, resulting in a soute after my trade, I just to understand the nature of the quotation concerning the dates... 2. iTraxx tranchesLet's consider the same iTraxx serie and maturity. Today, 24/08/2007, I want to buy a contract on the [6%-9%] tranche of this credit index, and the quoted spread of the day on Bloomberg is 190bps.Question : the same as above.Possible answers : it is the fair premium paid quarterly with ACT/360 day count convention of a synthetic CDO tranche [6%-9%] on the portfolio that constitutes the iTraxx :(a) starting 20/06/2007, ending 20/06/2017 ?(b) starting T+1, ending 20/06/2017 ?(c) other?Thank you very much for your help... feel free to correct me if I made some mistakes in my interpretation of these products.

I have been dealing with the same doubt for quite sometime. I am trying to construct survival curves out of the quotes, but have not been able to pin point on the interpretation of the quotes.Fabes, another interpretation that seemed possible was, deal starting effectively on 20/09/2007 - means first fixed coupon payment happening on 20/12/2007 for a quote on 24/08/2007Another clue I need to work on is that these quotes do not change very much day to day.. which might mean T+1 to 20/06/2017 might not hold (as the protection period decreases with everyday, so quote should change everyday)Would be really thankful if anyone with practical experience of working with these products chip in with the actual meaning of the quotes.

I suggest you search the forums for how these indices work and read the iBoxx presentations giving example payments. The spreads are annual spreads paid quarterly, if you buy the contract, you receive the original contract coupon, the contract starts at T+1 with an upfront payment made at T+3 which sets the value to zero given where the spread is trading today. Look at CDSW on bbg as well