CBOT Moves Forward With a/c/e Software Enhancements

The Chicago Board of Trade announced today that software enhancements will be implemented to its electronic trading platform a/c/e--alliance/cbot/eurex. These enhancements will ensure all customers continued access to CBOT® and Eurex products through the a/c/e system as Eurex moves forward with its 5.0 Release this fall.

Currently, the CBOT® uses the a/c/e 1.0 platform technology, allowing a gateway to CBOT® and Eurex products for global market users through a single trading platform. The CBOT®'s software enhancements are a three-step process starting June 20, 2001, with an upgrade to the GATE (Generic Access to Exchange) software, and continuing in the later phases with an upgrade to the exchange- issued Graphic User Interface (GUI), which is the front-end application. The GATE technical service is a set of software which is located at the member site and which is used in the various components that make up the a/c/e front-end system.

These enhancements will provide continued access for the CBOT®'s multi-market customers trading CBOT® and Eurex products on the existing platform, following Eurex's fourth quarter upgrade.

Since a/c/e's inception on August 28, 2000, more than 26 million CBOT® contracts have been traded on the system, with year-to-date average daily volume at 168,505 contracts. Moreover, the 5-Year Treasury Note futures had two record trading volume days on a/c/e this past week, at 43,613 contracts on June 4, breaking the previous record of 43,292 set on May 29, 2001.