SFE'S SPI® Contract Moves From Pit To Screen

From Monday, 4 October, trading of the Share Price Index (SPI®) futures and options contracts at the Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE) will take place on electronic screens rather than in open outcry pits, ending 16 years of Floor-based trading. The transfer of the SPI® to SFE's advanced screen-based SYCOM® IV trading platform is the first step in SFE's staged closure of its Trading Floor and move to full electronic trading. Electronic trading will allow SFE to conduct business 24 hours a day and distribute its products around the globe. Mr Leslie Hosking, SFE Chief Executive, said: "Moving the SPI® to screens is part of SFE's strategy to maintain its position as the Asia Pacific's leading financial futures exchange. A screen-traded SPI® will allow users to interface their own trading systems with those of SFE. This will facilitate greater access to, and continuity between, markets. This is especially advantageous for arbitrage traders who trade baskets of equities against the broad-based SPI® contract. "From Monday, the electronic delivery of SFE's SPI® futures and options products, means offshore banks and financial institutions who now trade Australian equities will have faster and more cost-efficient access to Australia's leading equity derivatives product." The SPI®'s last day of Floor trading is Friday, 1 October. Individual share futures will also transfer to SYCOM® IV at that time. Subject to Floor Member approval, the remaining Floor-based futures and options contracts (90-Day bank Bills and 3-Year & 10-Year Treasury Bonds) will cease being traded on the Floor on Friday, 12 November. The SPI® is SFE's premier equity product. It tracks the movement of the benchmark All Ordinaries Index and provides users with an easy and effective way to trade the share market and manage exposure to share market fluctuations. Introduced in 1983, the SPI® was the first equity index futures contract listed outside the United States. The SPI® is SFE's fourth most heavily traded product, accounting for 15.5% of SFE's total turnover. In 1998, 4.5 million SPI® futures and options contracts were traded, representing a nominal value of A$304.4 billion. SFE introduced SYCOM®, the world's first after hours electronic trading system, in 1989. The latest generation, SYCOM® IV, has been in operation since 5 July 1999 and is the trading platform used by the New Zealand Futures and Options Exchange, a wholly owned SFE subsidiary. The US Commodities Futures Trading Commission recently granted SFE approval to place its SYCOM® IV terminals in the US, making SFE the only exchange in the Asia Pacific region, stock or futures, to be granted such access to the world's largest financial marketplace.