The new, European-style options are scheduled to be listed on Sunday, July 30, 2006, at 5:00 p.m., for a trade date of Monday, July 31, on CME Globex and in the open outcry market that Monday at 7:20 a.m. CME already offers these contracts with American-style expiration via open outcry and during a limited CME Globex trading period.
CME launched its first European-style FX options on the CME Euro FX futures and CME Japanese Yen futures in April 2005. These two options have resulted in significant growth in electronic trading of CME FX options, which grew from 1,458 options traded on CME Globex in the first quarter 2005 to 47,573 for the same period in 2006.
"CME now offers five of its most actively traded FX options with both American-style and European-style expiration, the latter being in line with the over-the-counter market," said Rick Redding, CME Managing Director, Products and Services. "In 2005, the first year that we offered European- style options, our FX options volume grew nearly 35 percent. Our FX markets continue to grow because we provide market users with liquid electronic markets, a diverse array of FX futures and options and the ability to quickly respond to changing market needs."
For more information on CME European-style FX options, please visit http://www.cme.com/eurostyleoptions.
CME provides FX users with liquid, transparent markets, guaranteed execution and central counterparty clearing risk management on 37 individual FX futures and 24 options on futures products. In May 2006, CME FX average daily volume was a record 501,000 contracts, with a notional value of $63.5 billion, up 69 percent from a year ago. Last year, over 51 million FX contracts with a notional value of over $6.2 trillion traded at CME. In 2005, CME received FX Week's eFX award for the best electronic futures platform.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. ( http://www.cme.com ) is the world's largest and most diverse financial exchange. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on CME Globex electronic trading platform and on its trading floors. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange managed $47.0 billion in collateral deposits at March 31, 2006, including $3.8 billion in deposits for non-CME products. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: CME), which is part of the Russell 1000(R) Index.
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