Contract specifications for CME electronic livestock futures will be identical to those traded in the open outcry market and fully fungible with the open outcry contracts. Opposing positions in the respective markets will be offset automatically. The contracts will trade on CME's GLOBEX® electronic trading system.
Electronic lean hogs will open daily at 9:00 a.m. (Central time), while live cattle and feeder cattle will open simultaneously with their open outcry counterparts, at 9:05 a.m. Both electronic and open outcry markets will close at 1:00 p.m. for livestock futures products. Three contract months will be listed at all times for electronic trading, corresponding to the three nearby contracts in the open outcry market.
The side-by-side program in livestock futures follows the successful introduction of a similar program for foreign exchange products in April 2001.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is an international marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX® around-the-clock electronic trading system. CME offers futures contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moves about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $30.1 billion in collateral deposits.
