Additionally, beginning August 1, CME, the largest regulated marketplace for foreign exchange trading, will introduce a new one-year incentive program designed to attract large hedge funds and commodity trading advisors (CTAs) to its foreign exchange markets. Through this new program, large hedge funds and CTAs with more than $2 billion in assets under management will be eligible to trade CME FX products on the CME® Globex® electronic trading platform for 60 cents per side, vs. the current electronic trading fee of $1.60.
“We are very pleased with the results we have achieved to date through our global electronic incentive programs,” said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. “These programs have greatly expanded the reach of our markets to new global customers and in April 2005 contributed more than 200,000 contracts per day to overall exchange volumes. By extending our incentive programs through 2006, we hope to attract even more new business to CME.”
“CME is very focused on expanding our diverse product line to new customers around the globe,” said CME Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue. “Given the dramatic volume growth in electronic CME FX markets, which has increased 120 percent from one year ago, we have a tremendous opportunity to generate more trading volume in our markets from some of the world’s largest CTAs and hedge funds. Our new FX incentive program will better position CME to compete effectively with other FX trading platforms, and further position CME to increase our market share in the rapidly growing foreign exchange marketplace.”
In addition to the expansion of its special incentive programs, CME also implemented a series of trading fee changes in each of its product groups. For more information on CME’s pricing, please visit the exchange’s Website at www.cme.com\feechanges.
