Eurex Sets Position Limits For September Capital Market Products - Bund, Bobl And Schatz World's Most Successful Family Of Exchange-Traded Derivatives - Ferscha: Interest In Eurex Interest-Rate Products Continues To Rise

Eurex, the international derivatives market, has set the position limits for the September 2001 contracts in the Euro BUND, Euro BOBL and Euro SCHATZ futures. They are 80,000 contracts for the Bund future, 30,000 for the Bobl future and 40,000 for the Schatz future. According to Eurex, the limits support the early rollover of open positions in the September contracts into the next contract month (December) of the settlement cycle. As already reported on June 5, the limits are valid for the period from September 1 to 6, 2001 and limit the number of open long positions that can be held by a market participant, separated according to proprietary and customer trading positions. The position limits take into account the volume of bonds that are deliverable based on current market conditions as well as historical position data.

Eurex CEO Rudolf Ferscha said in Frankfurt on Monday that the Euro BUND, Euro BOBL and Euro SCHATZ futures were the most successful product family in worldwide trading of exchange-traded derivatives. "The market continues to show increasing interest in Eurex capital market benchmark products as the leading hedging instruments worldwide," Ferscha said. "Turnover in the Bund, Bobl and Schatz during the second quarter of this year is roughly 30 percent higher than the second-quarter figure last year."

The capital market products at Eurex and the underlying German federal bonds are regarded as Euroland benchmark products that are traded worldwide to hedge all European government bonds and a broad range of international bonds. More than 10,000 traders around the world have direct access to these products via the network and the Eurex electronic trading platform, which integrates trading and clearing. Average daily volume during the first half of the year was about 1.5 million contracts traded in the three products BUND, BOBL and SCHATZ; daily volume has tripled since the euro's introduction. Some 183 million contracts have already been traded during the first six months of this year alone, roughly 33 percent more than the number traded during the same period of last year.