The new CBOT 100 Ounce Gold Futures options contract is expected to begin trading on Friday, March 3, 2006 under the ticker symbol of OZG (OZGC for calls and OZGP for puts). Three firms, Infinium Capital Management LLC, Optiver US, LLC and Wolverine Trading, LLC, will be serving as electronic market makers and providing two-sided markets during daytime hours for the new contract. In addition, market users can access live real-time bids and offers for the most actively traded strikes for free on www.cbot.com/metals.
CBOT Senior Vice President of Business Development Robert W. Ray said, “We believe adding an options component has the potential to further strengthen the liquidity of our Precious Metals complex. Plus, the new contract should help generate strong demand among market participants who prefer the straight-through processing, instant trade matching and transparency that trading these contracts on an electronic platform provides. We are also honored to have the commitment of three firms such as Wolverine, Optiver and Infinium on board and ready to provide a competitive two-sided market for this new contract.”
Last month the CBOT’s Precious Metals Complex enjoyed an average daily volume of 22,599 contracts and had a market share of approximately 15 percent of all listed gold futures traded in North America. The CBOT’s Precious Metals Complex consists of full-sized (100 oz.) Gold futures, mini-sized (33.2 oz.) Gold futures, full-sized (5,000 oz.) Silver futures and mini-sized (1,000 oz.) Silver futures contracts.
