CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the launch of a broad suite of new natural gas and power markets.
These new contracts will be listed as futures on CME Globex, the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) trading floor and CME ClearPort, and will be available for trading on CME Direct, a sophisticated platform offering side-by-side trading and straight-through processing and clearing of exchange-listed and over-the-counter (OTC) energy markets. This follows the May introduction of CME Direct, which offered industry participants access to CME Group's suite of global benchmark energy products, including Henry Hub Natural Gas.
"The addition of these contracts vastly expands the breadth of listed products offered on CME Direct and offers our customers in the natural gas and power markets new trading strategies that better meet their needs," said Gary Morsches, Managing Director, Global Energy at CME Group. "This offers a fuller, more robust trading and clearing solution for our customers as they manage risk in the energy markets."
The new natural gas and power product suite includes 164 natural gas contracts available at 52 trading hubs and 48 power contracts for the four most liquid North American ISOs. It also offers market participants several new trading strategies including calendar strip and strip spread pricing, intra-month calendar strip trade pricing, cross basis swaps, and ISO and DART spreads for the power markets. All of these contracts are listed by and subject to the rules of the NYMEX.
"With unparalleled access to CME Group's listed and aggregated OTC markets, CME Direct provides a highly automated, sophisticated new way for the natural gas and power industry to execute their trading strategies," said Michel Everaert, Managing Director, OTC Solutions. "CME Direct's global distribution and real-time access allows market participants who have never used our services to access our markets and benefit from our risk management products."
CME Direct launched in May 2012 supporting trading for CME Group's energy complex, which has average daily trading volumes of approximately 1.9 million contracts. CME Group recently announced the launch of CME Direct Messenger, an instant messaging platform for energy traders, as part of CME Direct. For more information on CME Direct, please visit www.cmegroup.com/trading/cme-direct/index.
