Uniphase Chairman Rings Opening Bell For E-Mini Nasdaq 100 Futures Trading On CME

Kevin N. Kalkhoven, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Uniphase Corporation (Nasdaq: UNPH)-one of the newest Nasdaq 100 component stocks-today rang the ceremonial bell to open trading in E-mini Nasdaq 100 Index® futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) at 9 a.m. (Central time). "With today's launch of E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures investors can participate with a single transaction in the growth of the hottest technology companies that have taken the world by storm," CME Chairman Scott Gordon said. "The Merc is harnessing leading-edge technology to access the biggest technology players." "Uniphase is pleased to follow its inclusion last month in the Nasdaq 100 with the launch of the Merc's important new vehicle for trading the index," Kalkhoven said. "The nearly insatiable demand for bandwith caused by the growth of the Internet has driven the rise of many companies, like Uniphase, on the Nasdaq 100. We are pleasee that this new futures contract will allow even more investors to participate in this growth." Uniphase Corporation is an optoelectronics company based in San Jose, Calif., that designs, develops, manufactures and markets fiber optic telecommunications components, modules and lasers. The company, which joined the Nasdaq 100 on May 4, has a market capitalization of nearly $13 billion. The Nasdaq 100 Index is a modified capitalization-weighted index based on the 100 largest stocks traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Sized at $20 times the Nasdaq 100 Index price, the underlying value of the CME's E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures is one-fifth that of its standard Nasdaq 100 futures contract. At recent market levels, the E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures contract is valued at approximately $44,000. The Merc's standard Nasdaq 100 futures contract has an underlying value of $100 times the index, currently valued at approximately $220,000. The new contracts require one-fifth the performance bond or margin of the standard futures contract, enabling investors to control a large basket of stocks for a fraction of the money required to buy the individual stocks. For the E-mini Nasdaq 100, exchange initial performance bond requirements are $3,362 per contract, compared with $16,808 for each standard-sized contract. E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures contracts trade electronically on the Merc's GLOBEX®2 system virtually 24 hours per day, from 3:45 p.m. until 3:15 p.m. the following day. The new product builds on the success of the Merc's popular E-mini S&P 500 futures, now the exchange's third most heavily traded futures contract. Orders for E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures may flow through a variety of electronic routing systems, including the Internet, member firms' proprietary systems, and the Merc's TOPS system. Like the E-mini S&P 500, the E-mini Nasdaq 100 contracts trade via a combination of electronic and open outcry pit trading. Large orders for more than 30 Nasdaq 100 contracts trade via open outcry on an All-Or-None basis, just as with the CME's E-mini S&P 500 futures. The smaller contracts are "fungible" with the larger ones in that positions in the smaller contract may be offset by trading against an equivalent dollar-value of standard- size Nasdaq 100 futures and vice versa. A special E-mini Nasdaq 100 "virtual pit" outfitted initially with 32 GLOBEX2 workstations overlooks the Nasdaq 100 pit to accommodate traders on the floor. The Merc has established an E-mini Nasdaq 100 Resource Center on its website, at http://www.cme.com/e-nasdaq/ including free real-time prices, links to a current list of component stocks and a variety of trading resources. The Merc's launch of E-mini S&P 500 futures and options in September 1997 revolutionized index futures trading by bringing investors round-the-clock electronic access to conveniently sized contracts at the dawn of on-line and Internet trading. Individual investors who make their own trading decisions also were eager to use futures and options as vehicles for allocating assets or managing risk. Average daily volume in Nasdaq 100 futures has grown since its April 10, 1996, launch from 2,000 contracts to nearly 12,000 contracts. The CME is the world's leading exchange for equity index futures, offering the largest, most comprehensive family of stock index futures and options, including the S&P MidCap 400, Russell 2000 and Nikkei 225 and the S&P 500/BARRA Growth and Value Indexes, in addition to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100.