"By participating in our online chat about the Russell 1000, interested individuals anywhere in the world will be able to learn how the futures contracts will trade and gain insights on how to incorporate the Russell 1000 into their investing and risk-management strategies," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "Since CME already offers Russell 2000® and E-mini™ Russell 2000 futures and options, we will soon offer coverage of both the large-cap and small-cap market segments using Russell indexes."
"CME traders now have a comprehensive large-cap product based on Russell's objective index methodology," said Kelly Haughton, strategic director, Russell indexes. "They're breaking records trading products based on the Russell 2000 Index, and it seems futures contracts based on the Russell 1000 should prove similarly attractive."
The April 24 Webcast will be conducted by David Lerman, Associate Director, Equity Products at CME at 3:30 p.m. (Central time), and will include a slide presentation describing the product accompanied by live audio of Lerman's talk. During the presentation, participants may submit questions by E-mail, which Lerman will answer at the end of his presentation. Lerman has 15 years of experience in conducting seminars on CME's equity products and in introducing futures to individual investors. He is the author of Exchange Traded Funds and E-mini Stock Index Futures (Wiley and Sons, 2001).
Electronic trading hours for Russell 1000 futures on CME's GLOBEX® electronic trading platform will be virtually 24 hours per day, from 3:45 p.m (5:30 p.m. on Sundays) until 3:15 p.m. the following business day
The Russell 1000 measures the performance of the 1,000 largest companies in the Russell 3000 Index and represents approximately 92 percent of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index. As of the latest reconstitution, the average market capitalization of equities in the Russell 1000 was approximately $11 billion; the median market capitalization was approximately $3.5 billion. The index had a total market capitalization range of approximately $309 billion to $1.3 billion.
Futures and options on futures on the Russell 2000 began trading on CME in 1993, and CME listed E-mini Russell 2000 futures in 2001. Together, the products traded an average of more than 11,000 contracts daily in the first quarter of 2003. The Russell 2000 measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000 Index and represents approximately 8 percent of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index. The Russell 3000 Index measures the performance of the 3,000 largest U.S. companies based on total market capitalization, which represents approximately 98 percent of the investable U.S. equity market.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.(www.cme.com) is the largest futures exchange in the United States and the second largest exchange in the world for the trading of futures and options on futures. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX® around-the-clock electronic trading platform. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moves an average of about $1.8 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $27.4 billion in collateral deposits. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME).
Frank Russell Company, a global leader in multi-manager investment services, provides investment products and services in more than 35 countries. Russell manages more than $67 billion in assets and advises clients worldwide representing US$1.6 trillion. Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual and is headquartered in Tacoma, Wash., with additional offices in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Auckland and Tokyo. For more information, go to www.russell.com.
