Each spread trade involves simultaneously selling and buying two different contracts or contract expirations. Spread trades between two contract months are executed at a price differential. When spreads are executed on GLOBEX, prices for the individual contract months are assigned by an automated process. When spreads are executed by open outcry, participants to the trade agree upon prices for the individual contract months at the time of execution.
The total GLOBEX fee charged to customers for spread trading will be reduced from $2.00 to $1.50, including a $0.50 GLOBEX system fee and $0.25 GLOBEX customer fee for each of the two contracts traded. The GLOBEX customer fee for standard "outright" trades will remain at $0.50. The fee reduction comes in response to customer requests, and will reduce the cost of risk management at the time of expiration of nearby contracts, for example, when positions may be "rolled" into the next available contract month.
CME foreign exchange futures trade electronically on GLOBEX® virtually around the clock, from 4:30 p.m. (Central Time) to 4:00 p.m. the following business day. (On Sundays, trading begins at 5:30 p.m.)
CME trades futures and options on futures on the Australian dollar, British pound, Brazilian real, Canadian dollar, Euro FX, Japanese yen, Mexican peso, New Zealand dollar, Russian ruble, South African rand and Swiss franc. Cross-rate contracts traded at CME are Euro FX/British pound, Euro FX/Japanese yen and Euro FX Swiss franc. In addition, CME trades E-mini Euro FX and E-mini Japanese yen futures-smaller sized electronic versions of its Euro FX and yen futures contracts, introduced in October 1999.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is an international marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX® around-the-clock electronic trading system. CME offers futures contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moves about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $30.1 billion in collateral deposits. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.
