Kansas City Board Of Trade To Offer Electronic Trading

The Kansas City Board of Trade announced today that the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT‚) will host the KCBT futures and options contracts on its e-cbot‚ electronic trading platform powered by LIFFE CONNECT‚ in the fourth quarter of 2004. The KCBT‚ wheat futures and options contracts will continue to be traded by open outcry during regular trading hours. Under the hosting agreement, the KCBT will remain independent and determine its own open and close times.

The KCBT Hard Red Winter Wheat futures contract will continue to trade by open outcry from 9:30 a.m. CT to 1:15 CT Monday through Friday. It will trade electronically from 7:32 p.m. CT to 6:00 a.m. Sunday through Friday. No Saturday evening session will be held. The KCBT Hard Red Winter Wheat options contract will continue to trade by open outcry from 9:30 a.m. to 1:25 p.m. and will trade electronically from 7:34 p.m. CT to 6:00 a.m. CT. Sunday through Friday. No Saturday evening session will be held.

With the onset of electronic trading, the KCBT Value Line‚ stock index futures contract will only be offered for trading electronically, from 7:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. CT Sunday through Friday. The Value Line stock index options contract will also trade by electronic trading only, from 7:17 p.m. CT through 3:15 p.m. CT Sunday through Friday. No Saturday evening sessions will be held.

"This is the culmination of a several-year pursuit of the most suitable electronic trading platform for the benefit of KCBT market users, said KCBT President and CEO Jeff Borchardt. "The agreement with the CBOT satisfies all of the key elements considered desirous in such a relationship. It responds to the electronic trading access needs of Value Line stock index users, offers after-hours access to KCBT’s highly-liquid flagship grains products, provides the best system functionality and distribution fit for the KCBT’s product lines, and forges a business relationship with an exchange that the KCBT has shared a tremendous relationship with over many years."

"The year 2004 has been an exciting, evolutionary year for the KCBT thus far," said KCBT Chairman Scott Smith. "The KCBT’s decision to enter into a business alliance with the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WCE) to provide clearing processing services by year’s end complements quite well the decision to offer electronic trading through CBOT’s electronic trading platform powered by LIFFE CONNECT‚. Several years of careful examination have yielded two new, exciting endeavors with organizations with whom we have enjoyed great working relationships for many years."

The Kansas City Board of Trade, chartered in 1876, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat.