Past research explains observed spreads between futures and forward Eu
rodollar yields as being due to the futures contract's mark-to-market
feature. We derive closed form solutions for this yield spread and sho
w that, theoretically, it should be small. Also, differences in liquid
ity, taxation, and default risk cannot account for the large spreads o
bserved. We also present evidence that the spreads, which are nonnegli
gible primarily in the first half of the sample period, are likely to
be attributable to the mispricing of futures contracts relative to the
forward rates and that the mispricing was gradually eliminated over t
ime.