Osaka Exchange (OSE) and Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) today successfully launched the new derivatives trading system, J-GATE3.0, on schedule. Related listings of new products, revisions of trading rules such as the expansion of trading hours and the transfer of the J-GATE3.0 backup function to the Kansai Data Center were also completed.
Iwanaga Moriyuki, President and CEO of Osaka Exchange, Inc. (and Representative Director and Chair of Tokyo Commodity Exchange, Inc.), commented:
I would like to announce that OSE and TOCOM have successfully launched the new derivatives trading system, J-GATE3.0, and that its first trading day has finished without any trouble.< /p>
I would like to express my deep gratitude for the extensive and kind cooperation we have received from trading participants and related vendors in preparation for this system replacement.
This new system is not only a replacement for the previous trading system, which had been in place since July 2016, but is also the first system whose backup system is installed in the new backup center in the Kansai region, to which Japan Exchange Group, Inc. (JPX) is transferring its backup facilities from the current center in the Kant? region. The backup facilities for the clearing and cash equity trading systems are also scheduled to be sequentially transferred to the Kansai backup center.
JPX has been enhancing the position of OSE as its western hub and expanding its functions; as well as the backup center, the daily system operations team is also located in Osaka in order to create a monitoring structure where system operations for the whole Group are simultaneously monitored from both Tokyo and Osaka. Today's new system launch means that our efforts to improve the resilience of the JPX market as a whole using the hub in Osaka are now in full swing.
I would also like to announce that the launch of J-GATE3.0 has brought our initiatives to expand OSE's derivatives market trading volume into reality.
First of all, in line with the launch of this system, which enables further expansion of trading hours, we have extended the night session to 6 a.m. This will make futures and options trading more convenient for the purpose of risk hedging as trading will now be possible until the close of the US stock market throughout the year. We have also expanded trading of index options to start at 8.45 a.m. from today, bringing them in line with index futures.
Furthermore, to mark the occasion, we have listed CME Group Petroleum Index Futures as a new product. The aim of this product, which is highly correlated with WTI futures prices, is to provide investors trading financial derivatives with opportunities to invest in the leading international crude oil indicator. For this purpose, the specifications such as notional value and settlement criteria are designed to enable investors to trade this product like the Nikkei 225 mini.
Lastly, we have introduced "Flexible Futures Trading", which we expect to be used mostly by institutional investors. Available underlying indices include not only Nikkei 225 and TOPIX but also the Nikkei Total Return Index and others.
OSE and TOCOM, which operate the derivatives market under JPX, intend to utilize their common infrastructure J-GATE to its full potential in order to provide a highly convenient and valuable trading venue to domestic and overseas investors. We will use the launch of J-GATE3.0 as an opportunity to work hard to accelerate the use of our market.
