CME Sets June 21 Start Up For E-Mini Nasdaq 100 Futures - New Electronic 'Mini' Product Follows Success of E-mini S&P 500

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) will begin trading E-mini Nasdaq 100 Index® futures on Monday, June 21. The new product builds on the success of the Merc's popular E-mini S&P 500 futures, now the exchange's third most heavily traded futures contract. Sized at USD20 times the Nasdaq 100 Index price, the underlying value of the CME's E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures is one-fifth that of its regular Nasdaq 100 futures contract. At recent market levels, the E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures contract would be valued at approximately USD42,800. The existing Nasdaq 100 futures contract has an underlying value of USD100 times the index, currently valued at approximately USD214,000. "Customer demand is strong for an E-mini version of the our Nasdaq 100 contract at the same time our standard-sized Nasdaq 100 futures are setting volume and open interest records and average daily volume has soared over 10,000," CME Chairman Scott Gordon said. "The Nasdaq 100 index provides investors the opportunity to gain exposure to many of the technology and Internet companies, such as Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Cisco Systems and MCI with just one trade." The new contracts will trade electronically on the Merc's GLOBEX®2 system virtually 24 hours per day. Orders may flow through a variety of electronic routing systems, including the Internet, member firms' proprietary systems, and the Merc's TOPS system. Like the E-mini S&P 500, the E-mini Nasdaq 100 contracts will trade via a combination of electronic and open outcry pit trading. Large orders for more than 30 E- mini Nasdaq 100 contracts trade via open outcry on an All-Or-None basis, just as with the CME's E-mini S&P 500 futures. The smaller contracts will be "fungible" with the larger ones in that positions in the smaller contract may be offset by trading against an equivalent dollar-value of standard- size Nasdaq 100 futures and vice versa. A special E-mini Nasdaq 100 "pit" outfitted with GLOBEX2 workstations is being constructed adjacent to the current Nasdaq 100 pit to accommodate traders on the floor. The CME's September 1997 launch of E-mini S&P 500 futures and options revolutionized index futures trading, at a time when electronic and Internet trading began to thrive. At the same time, market savvy investors who make their own trading decisions were poised to use futures and options to manage the risk of their equity portfolios or to use index futures as a vehicle for allocating assets. The resulting volume in E-mini S&P 500 futures has grown to make the product the third most actively traded futures contract on the CME in recent months, behind Eurodollars and standard-sized S&P 500 Stock Price Index contracts. Average daily volume in the Nasdaq 100 has grown since its 1996 launch from 2,000 contracts to 7,500 contracts year-to date. The CME is the world's leading exchange for equity index futures, offering the largest, most comprehensive family of stock index futures and options, including the S&P MidCap 400, Russell 2000 and Nikkei 225 and the S&P 500/BARRA Growth and Value Indexes, in addition to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100. The Merc has established an E-mini Nasdaq 100 Resource Center on its website, including links to a current list of component stocks. The CME has also received regulatory approval to trade E-mini Nasdaq 100 options. Only the futures contracts will be listed initially, however.