Yesterday, 11 CBOT futures and options products were migrated to the new electronic platform. Volume in these products reached 40,348 contracts on the CBOT's new electronic platform on its first full day of trading. Participating in the migration are 118 firms in 185 locations, and highlights of the CBOT's new electronic platform include increased speed and performance and enhanced functionality.
In its initial day of operation, the CCL cleared 375,541 contracts, and open interest stood at 2,628,407 contracts at Monday's close. The CCL offers CBOT and CME® market users unprecedented industry savings of $1.4 billion in performance bond reductions and $200 million in capital reductions, along with another $1 million in savings from transaction and other ancillary fees.
CBOT Chairman Charles Carey said, "We are very pleased with the performances of the CBOT's new electronic trading system and the CME/CBOT Common Clearing Link. On day one of this historic launch, our customers already are enjoying the benefits of the CBOT's superior electronic platform, with its enhanced functionality, and the capital, margin and operational efficiencies delivered by the CCL. I want to thank the staff members of the CBOT, CME, and Euronext.liffe who worked intensely for months to complete the first phase of this ambitious initiative. Additionally, the firms' diligence and enthusiasm for these projects was a tremendous help to the CBOT in delivering an on-time, seamless transition."
Hugh Freedberg, Chief Executive of Euronext.liffe, commented on the successful launch, "Euronext.liffe is pleased to supply the LIFFE CONNECT®Ò technology to the Chicago Board of Trade. The migration process has gone extremely well, as both exchanges have worked hard to make this day happen.""The implementation of the first phase of the CME/CBOT Common Clearing Link conversion has been remarkably seamless," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "This weekend's successful launch marks the culmination of several months of hard work by our firms and customers as well as by many CME and CBOT employees. Thanks to a comprehensive program of information sharing, ongoing dialogue and testing with firms, an even stronger program has been created than what was originally envisioned when we announced this ambitious initiative last April. Most importantly, the many users of our markets are already beginning to realize immediate benefit from a number of tremendous and real cost savings and other efficiencies."
The CBOT contracts that migrated to the new electronic platform and CCL during phase one of the transition included: CBOT DJIASM sm futures and options; CBOT mini-sized Dowsm futures; DowSM Jones-AIG Commodity Index; 5-Year and 10-Year Swap futures and options; Fed Funds futures and options; and 10-Year Municipal Note Index futures. Additionally, all CBOT agricultural and metals products made the transition to the CCL during the phase one.
The second and final phase of the transition to the new electronic trading platform and clearing operation is set for Thursday evening, January 1, 2004 (the trade date of January 2, 2004), when 2-, 5-, 10- and 30-Year U.S. Treasury futures and options; 5-Year and 10-Year Agency futures and options; and all screen-based CBOT agricultural futures and options will be available on the new systems.
For more information on CBOT products, log onto the Exchange web site at www.cbot.com.
