BrokerTec Futures Exchange Reduces Minimum Tick Size On Five-Year U.S. Treasury Note Contract Change To Create Tighter Spreads, More Efficient Market

In a move that will create an even tighter, more liquid and competitive marketplace, BrokerTec Futures Exchange (BTEX), the nation's only fully-electronic fixed income futures exchange, announced today that a decrease in the minimum tick size on the five-year Treasury note contract will be implemented as of Friday, February 14, 2003. At that time, the minimum tick size will be lowered from 1/2 of 1/32nd of a point (or US$ 15.625 rounded up to the nearest 1 cent per contract) to 1/4 of 1/32nd of a point (or US$ 7.813 rounded to the nearest 1 cent per contract).

This reduction comes as BTEX is seeing a growth in open interest and a rise in participation from the institutional trading community. BTEX also recently announced that a total of 2,109,670 contracts were traded in 2002, its first full year of operation.

"By lowering the minimum tick size, we will bring a better transaction price to the market and allow for greater participation from our expanding base of end-users, including market makers, e-locals, proprietary traders and institutional end-users," said Hank Mlynarski, President, BrokerTec Futures Exchange. "This, in turn, will create more efficiencies by further improving the quality and depth of our market."