On March 18, 2025, the Bursa Malaysia DCE Soybean Oil Futures ("FSOY"), which was launched by Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Berhad ("BMD") on the basis of soybean oil futures of Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), has been operating for a full year. Over the past year, FSOY has recorded a cumulative trading volume of 100,900 lots, demonstrating steady market expansion and stable performance.
In terms of market scale, FSOY has stood out from similar products. Statistics show that as of March 17, 2025, FSOY has an average daily open interest of 100 lots and an average daily trading volume of 386 lots. Its trading volume ranks second among all 11 commodity products of BMD and fifth among about 20 global agricultural futures contracts listed outside their domestic exchanges.
In terms of contract form, FSOY has maintained continuous trading activity. As of today, 15 contracts of FSOY have been listed, among which 12 contracts have been traded. The three contracts with the largest trading volumes are the 2501, 2503, and 2505 contracts in sequence, accounting for 22%, 20%, and 17% of the total trading volume, respectively.
As for price and operation, FSOY operates stably and maintains high correlation with the soybean oil futures price of DCE. Since its listing, the intraday price fluctuation range of FSOY has been relatively small, with the largest single-day range being 3.5%. The correlation coefficient between the settlement price of the 2501 contract of FSOY and that of the same-month contract of DCE has reached 94%, while the correlation coefficients between the settlement prices of other relatively active contracts of FSOY and the corresponding contracts of DCE all exceed 90%.
As a mutually beneficial cooperation pattern with controllable risks, the authorization of settlement prices has been widely applied in the international financial market. FSOY is based on the soybean oil futures on DCE. The underlying assets of the contracts and the listed contract months are the same as those of DCE's soybean oil futures. When an FSOY contract expires, cash settlement is carried out on the basis of the delivery settlement price of DCE's soybean oil futures.
The head of BMD’s relevant business stated that over the past year, BMD has actively worked on market development. Through market-making business and market incentive programs, it has ensured the price continuity of FSOY and attracted more industry clients to participate in trading. Market entities can now trade both soybean oil and crude palm oil futures simultaneously on BMD. This helps strengthen the connectivity of international markets, improve the efficiency of industry risk management, and create new trading opportunities for market participants.
As the head of DCE’s relevant business noted, DCE is exploring ways to expand this cooperation pattern to more products and partners, thereby further advancing high-level institutional market opening-up to the global stage.
