The new quarterly-term products reflect a constant delivery of electricity for baseload or peakload blocks for an entire quarter. As reported, the new products have terms ranging from one to a maximum of seven quarters, the first tradable quarter is the second quarter of 2002.
EEX has been offering one-month and one-year futures on baseload and peakload blocks up to now. The one-month futures have terms of one to 18 months, the 12-month futures have terms of up to three years.
In this connection, EEX pointed out once again that cascading for the one-year futures and quarterly-term futures will be introduced on December 27. Unlike one-month futures, which are cash-settled directly, quarter-term and 12-month futures are initially replaced by other futures. On December 27, for example, quarterly-term futures will break down into three one-month futures which together correspond to the delivery quarter. One-year futures are replaced on the last trading day by three one-month futures and three quarterly-term futures. The cascading makes it possible for trading participants to trade standardized, liquid products at EEX also during the delivery period. This makes participants who trade on the exchange more flexible and they can hedge their physical positions better with futures products.
Further information from the Gruppe Deutsche Boerse is available under http://www.media-relations.deutsche-boerse.com.
