CME To Reduce By Half Minimum Price Increment On GSCI®

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) announced plans to cut in half the minimum price movement on Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI®) futures and options contracts, effective Tuesday, May 18. The change is designed to enhance contract efficiency and has been approved by the CME Board of Directors and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The minimum price fluctuation will now be 0.05 index points, or USD12.50 per tick, half the previous level of 0.10 index points, or USD25 per tick. The GSCI, a production-weighted commodity index composed of 26 liquid futures contracts traded at various futures exchanges around the world, is designed to serve as a benchmark for global commodity prices. The futures contract is sized at $250 times the index level. The futures and options trade via open outcry from 08:15 to 14:15 and electronically after hours on the GLOBEX®2 system from 14:45 to 08:00 the following day. Daily trading volume in the GSCI contract has averaged approximately 3,400 contracts per day through the first four months of 1999.