Euro FX Posts Strongest Start Of Any Currency Futures At The Chicago Mercantile Exchange

With nearly 3 million contracts already traded and two trading sessions still left in the year, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's EuroFX currency futures contract has entered the record books as the strongest first-year start for any currency futures contract. Through the close of trade Wednesday, a total of 2,995,166 EuroFX futures contracts had traded since the contract was launched on Jan. 3. "It was a tremendous start, and activity in the contract continued to build throughout the year," said Yra Harris, an independent trader who also serves on the CME's Board of Directors and as Chairman of the CME's foreign currency committee. The CME's EuroFX contract is sized at 125,000 euro, and trades virtually around the clock on the CME's trading floor from 7:20 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then on the CME's GLOBEX®2 electronic trading system from 2:30 p.m. to 7:05 a.m. the following day. The CME is the world's leading exchange for currency futures and options trading. In October, the CME introduced the E-mini EuroFX, a half-size, electronically traded version of the EuroFX, in which markets are supported around the clock by the CME's GFX subsidiary. The contract trades from 2:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. the following business day. The EuroFX will eventually replace two currency products currently listed by the CME - the Deutsche mark and the French franc. Though the CME continues to list these products, activity in each dropped off markedly as the EuroFX contract continued to gain ground. In August, the CME began offering both Deutsche mark and French franc contracts exclusively through GLOBEX2. The euro was introduced at the beginning of 1999 as the new official currency of 11 European nations including Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. At its inception, the currency traded at approximately U.S. $1.19, though trended downward throughout the year, trading around the $1.01 level at year's end. The euro is gradually being introduced into its member nations through a transition period that is scheduled to end on Feb. 28, 2002.