KCBT Seeks To Change Last Trading Day, Settlement For Stock Index Contracts

The Kansas City Board of Trade is seeking to change rules governing last trading day and settlement procedures for its Value Line and ISDEX stock index futures contracts. Pending approval by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the KCBT will change the last trading day for the contracts to the third Thursday of a contract delivery month. Currently, the last trading day is the third Friday of a contract delivery month. Additionally, the exchange plans to use a special opening quotation of the index on the day following last trading day for the final cash settlement price. Currently, the final cash settlement price for KCBT stock index futures is the closing price on the last trading day. The proposed changes would put KCBT stock index futures contracts in line with the last trading day and settlement procedures used in stock index contracts traded at other exchanges. Pending government approval, the changes will go into effect with the June 2000 contract for Value Line futures and the September 2000 contract for ISDEX futures. ISDEX, The Internet Stock Index created by internet.com Corporation, is the leading and oldest Internet stock index in the marketplace. The ISDEX contains 50 stocks representative of the diversity of publicly traded U.S. companies that derive revenue primarily from the Internet. ISDEX is a registered trademark of internet.com Corp. Value Line futures, the first stock index futures contracts in the world when they were launched in 1982, are based on a broad-based index of 1,650 stocks. As previously announced, the KCBT will offer a single Value Line futures contract with a $100 multiplier following the March 2000 expiration. Value Line is a registered mark of Value Line, Inc., a New York corporation that provides financial services and publications. Since 1982, the Kansas City Board of Trade has been licensed to use the Value Line mark in connection with its efforts to establish futures markets tied to the Value Line index. The Kansas City Board of Trade and Value Line, Inc. are not affiliated corporate entities.