CME Group announced Tuesday that certain markets — including the historic Frozen Pork Bellies futures and options contracts— will not make the transition to the Chicago Board of Trade trading floor but rather trade exclusively on the Globex electronic platform.
The announcement noted that CME Group officials were meeting with members to discuss integration plans and that construction of the recalibrated floor would begin next week. The announcement noted that beginning in March equity index products would migrate to the CBOT floor with interest rate and foreign exchange products moving in April and commodity products moving in May.
Currency futures will be combined in one trading pit with cross rate futures and the least liquid contracts moving completely to the electronic venue.
The release stated, “It was determined that open outcry of certain products with more than 90% of trading liquidity on the screen could be moved entirely electronic.”
While for years the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s financial products— not to mention its other meat contracts — traded much greater volume, the exchange has often been identified with its pork belly contract, which was one its first great successes when launched in 1961.
The complete text of the press release follows:
News Release Issued: August 28, 2007 4:10 PM EDT
CME Group Provides Trading Floor Integration Update
CHICAGO, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse exchange, continues to move forward with its plans to integrate operations, including consolidating all products onto a single trading floor and platform. With construction beginning next week, exchange officials began to meet with members today to provide updates on the new trading floor facility that will be located in the historic Chicago Board of Trade building at 141 W. Jackson Blvd. Beginning in March the company's equity index products will migrate to the newly revised trading floor facility. Interest rates and foreign exchange products will follow in April, with commodities products migrating in May.
CME Group will continue to provide access to the widest array of benchmark products through two venues -- open outcry and electronic trading. The combined trading floor is designed to create new cross-product trading opportunities based on the adjacency of related markets -- a feature that is currently not available with trading floors in two separate locations. After an extensive evaluation, it was determined that open outcry of certain products with more than 90 percent of trading liquidity on the screen could be moved entirely electronic.
Today, CME Group trades approximately 11 million contracts each day with 2.38 million traded via open outcry.
As a result of the trading floor consolidation, CME Group will move the following products exclusively to electronic trading: 1-Month LIBOR futures, Euroyen futures and options on futures, Frozen Pork Bellies futures and options, Cash Dairy, South American Bean futures, 100-Ounce Gold options, 5,000-Ounce Silver options, and Ethanol futures.
In addition, trading of all FX products, including Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, Mexican Peso, New Zealand Dollar, and Swiss Franc futures on the floor will be consolidated into a single trading pit. CME Group will move trading of Brazilian Real, Czech Koruna, Hungarian Forint, Korean Won, Polish Zloty, Russian Rubble and South African Rand futures as well as Cross-Rates Futures contracts to an electronic platform.
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."
The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, Globex and E-mini, are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago.
These trademarks are used herein under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group and its products can be found at http://www.cmegroup.com/.
