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CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse exchange, today announced that it has successfully completed the first phase of migrating the e-cbot futures and options on futures contracts on to its CME Globex(R) electronic trading platform. Beginning on Sunday, January 13, at 5:00 p.m., for a trade date of January 14, all e-cbot listed equity index products began trading electronically on CME Globex followed by all e-cbot listed agricultural products at 6:00 p.m.
"Throughout the integration process, we have worked closely with both customers and independent software vendors to make the transition to a single, and in some cases new, platform as seamless and efficient as possible and greatly appreciate all they have done to make this a success," said CME Group Chief Operating Officer Bryan Durkin. "Now our customers can trade our agricultural and equity index products on one platform, with each product group having one set of rules and policies and standardized trading hours. Our customers will also have access to improved risk management tools and faster, more timely market data for agricultural and equity index products that previously traded on e-cbot."
In 2007, electronically traded CBOT agricultural futures and options on futures averaged 326,324 contracts a day, up 350 percent from 2006. An average of 160,144 CBOT equity index contracts a day traded electronically, representing a 47 percent increase over 2006 electronic volume for these contracts. Last year, average daily volume for all products at CME Group was 11 million contracts on a pro forma basis of which approximately 80 percent traded electronically.
CME Group plans to complete electronic trading integration on January 27, when the CBOT interest rate products begin trading on CME Globex. CME's trading floors will migrate completely from 20 S. Wacker Drive to the CBOT building at 141 W. Jackson during the second quarter of 2008.
For information on the revised trading hours for CBOT agricultural products, please visit http://www.cbot.com/cbot/docs/87341.pdf for and http://www.cme.com/files/floorPassout.pdf for CBOT equity index products.
CME Group (http://www.cmegroup.com) is the world's largest and most diverse exchange. Formed by the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), CME Group serves the risk management needs of customers around the globe. As an international marketplace, CME Group brings buyers and sellers together on the CME Globex electronic trading platform and on its trading floors. CME Group offers the widest range of benchmark products available across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, and alternative investment products such as weather and real estate. CME Group is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ under the symbol "CME."
