The new, European-style options on these two futures contracts will be listed on Sunday, April 3, 2005, at 5:00 p.m. on CME Globex and in the open outcry market on Monday, April 4, 2005, at 7:20 a.m.
“CME FX futures and options, which last year traded $6.2 trillion in notional value, are a rapidly growing part of the overall FX market,” said Rick Sears, Managing Director, CME Foreign Exchange. “Last year, our total FX volume grew more than 50 percent, and our electronic volume was up 128 percent from the prior year. Now for the first time, investors will be able to trade our futures and options off the same electronic platform nearly 24 hours a day. In addition, offering the choice of European-style expiration, as well as American-style expiration, allows our investors flexibility in determining investment strategies and also provides alternative tools that are more in line with the OTC market. These new FX options as well as other initiatives, such as our distribution partnership with Reuters that will allow traders to move seamlessly between the spot and futures markets, further increase the value of our risk management products.”
CME’s Euro FX and Japanese yen futures and options contracts are among the exchange’s most actively traded FX contracts. Average daily volume in CME Euro futures and options was 86,757 in 2004 and 31,070 in CME Japanese yen futures and options.
CME offers the largest regulated FX trading complex in the world, providing users with liquid, transparent markets, guaranteed execution and central counterparty clearing risk management on 36 individual FX futures and 21 options on futures products. CME received FX Week’s 2004 eFX award for the best electronic futures platform. Last year, over 51 million FX contracts with a notional value of over $6.2 trillion traded at CME.
Following are the specifications for the Euro FX contract:
Contract Size: | One Euro FX futures contract for 125,000 € |
Contract Month: | Four
quarterly expiration months Two serial expiration months |
Globex Trading Hours | 5:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. the following day |
Trading Floor Hours: | 7:20 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Monday – Friday |
Minimum Tick: | $.0001 per
Euro =$12.50 $.00005 ($6.25) for option prices of $.00045 or less |
Position
Limits Accountability: |
A person owning/controlling a combination of options and underlying futures contracts that exceed 10,000 futures-equivalent contracts net on the same side of the market in all contract months combined shall provide, in a timely fashion, upon request by the Exchange, information regarding the nature of the position. |
Last Trading Day: | March
quarterly and serial options: The second Thursday preceding the
third Wednesday of the contract month at the normal Regular Trading Hours
(RTH) closing time of 2:00 p.m. (Central time). Weekly options: At the normal RTH closing time of 2:00 p.m. (Central Time) on any Thursday of the contract month that is not the termination of a quarterly or serial European-style option. |
Exercise Price interval: | $.005, e.g., $1.305, $1.310, etc. |
Following are the specifications for the Japanese yen contract:
Contract Size: | One Japanese yen futures contract for 12,500,000 ¥ |
Contract Month: | Four
quarterly expiration months Two serial expiration months |
Globex Trading Hours: | 5:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. the following day |
Trading Floor Hours: | 7:20 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Monday – Friday |
Minimum Tick: | $.000001 per
Japanese yen = $12.50 $.0000005 per Japanese yen ($6.25) for option prices of $.0000045 or less |
Position
Limits Accountability: |
A person owning/controlling a combination of options and underlying futures contracts that exceed 10,000 futures-equivalent contracts net on the same side of the market in all contract months combined shall provide, in a timely fashion, upon request by the Exchange, information regarding the nature of the position. |
Last Trading Day: | March
quarterly and serial options: The second Thursday preceding the
third Wednesday of the contract month at the normal Regular Trading Hours
(RTH) closing time of 2:00 p.m. (Central time). Weekly options: At the normal RTH closing time of 2:00 p.m. (Central Time) on any Thursday of the contract month that is not the termination of a quarterly or serial European-style option. |
Exercise Price Interval: | $.00005, e.g. $.00965, $.00970, $.00975, etc. |
Except for the termination-of-trading day and exercise, all contract terms specified are the same as for CME’s American-style FX options. CME will continue to offer American-style options on both Euro FX and Japanese yen futures contracts.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is the largest futures exchange in the United States. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on CME Globex® electronic trading platform and on its trading floor. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moved about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments in 2004 and managed $44.1 billion in collateral deposits as of Dec. 31, 2004, including $3.1 billion in deposits for non-CME products. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME), which is part of the Russell 1000® Index.