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To be eligible for the program, 30 percent of the member's CME Eurodollar Options volume must be traded electronically. CME will aggregate individual member and member firm volume for all accounts within a single clearing firm. The program's fee schedule will be:
* Equity/Clearing Members -- reduced from $0.34 all-in per side to $0.24
* Lessee Members -- reduced from $0.45 all-in per side to $0.37
* 106H Corporate Members -- reduced from $0.44 all-in per side to $0.39
"CME continues to generate increasing volumes of electronically-traded CME Eurodollar options on futures, which is a key component of our growth strategy," said CME Chairman, Terry Duffy. "Our new pricing structure is designed to strengthen the trend toward electronic trading by attracting new customers to our electronic CME Eurodollar options market as well as encourage increased participation in these markets from current customers."
"Improved electronic functionality and growing volume are transforming CME's Eurodollar options market," said CME Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue. "The technology enhancements that we have integrated into CME Globex since last August are making it easier for customers to execute complex trading strategies electronically and creating increased electronic participation in our markets. We have also expanded access to this market by working closely with key technology partners to ensure that our mutual customers can fully benefit from CME enhanced options functionality."
Of the approximately 1.1 million CME Eurodollar options contracts traded daily in March 2006 at the exchange, 58,000 contracts were traded electronically compared to 17,000 options contracts in March 2005. This is an increase from 51,000 CME Eurodollar options traded electronically in February 2006 and 47,000 in January.
Options on CME Eurodollar futures are the most actively traded, exchange-listed, interest rate options in the world. They are a risk management tool that provides the opportunity for market participants to limit losses while maintaining the possibility of profiting from favorable changes in futures prices. Options liquidity allows market participants to take advantage of their views on the direction of U.S. interest rates.
For more information on this program, please visit http://www.cme.com/irupdate.
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 moved about $1.4 billion per day in settlement payments in 2005 and managed $45.8 billion in collateral deposits at December 30, 2005, including $3.2 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.
Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, which can be obtained at its Web site at http://www.sec.gov. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME, the globe logo and CME Globex are registered trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. E-mini is a trademark of CME. CLEARING 21 is a registered trademark of CME and New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. S&P, S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Nikkei 225, Russell 1000, Russell 2000, TRAKRS, Total Return Asset Contracts and other trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks that are not proprietary to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. are the property of their respective owners, and are used herein under license. Further information about CME and its products is available on the CME Web site at http://www.cme.com.
