Exchanges
CME Group will offer OTC grain swaps through CME ClearPort. CME Group also announced four new average price options contracts and announced 14 new petroleum product swap futures contracts. CME Group also introduced 10 new Midwest and California ISO electricity swap futures contracts, launched deliverable nonfat dry milk futures and options on futures and launched E-mini gold kilo and E-mini silver 1,000 ounce futures contracts. CME Group also acquired the Carvill Hurricane Index from Carvill America Inc. and renamed it the CME Hurricane Index. www.cmegroup.com
The CBOE Futures Exchange, LLC launched trading in CBOE mini-VIX futures. www.cboe.com
Event contracts
HedgeStreet launched four event-focused binary options contracts. The contracts include Initial Jobless Claims, European Central Bank Rate Announcements, Nonfarm Payrolls, and Unemployment Rate. www.hedgestreet.com
American Civics Exchangecorp, Inc. launched The American Civics Exchange, a commercial market for political futures. www.amciv.com
Forex
PFGBEST added currency pairs and mini-sized currency pairs to its BESTDirect MT4 forex trading platform. www.pfgforex.com
Trading Technologies International, Inc. will provide connectivity to spot FX trading platform EBS through its X_TRADER platform in mid-2009. www.tradingtechnologies.com
GFT launched FX360.com, a Web site that offers market information and analysis. www.fx360.com
Forex Factory launched a new charting feature for economic events listed on its economic calendar. www.forexfactory.com
CLS Group and ICAP are creating a joint venture to provide trade aggregation services to participants active in the over the counter FX market. www.icap.com
Dukascopy filed its application to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority for the acquisition of a banking license, in compliance with the new Swiss regulations applicable to forex dealers. www.dukascopy.com
Options
The Options Industry Council launched a dedicated advisor web portal. www.optionseducation.org
ETFs
NYSE Euronext released new EasyETF trackers on the NYSE Euronext market in Paris. www.easyetf.com
Indexes
Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes, Inc. resumed publication of the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Equity Long/Short and Equity Market Neutral Strategy Benchmarks. www.djhedgefundindexes.com
Dow Jones Indexes and the South Asian Federation of Exchanges launched the Dow Jones SAFE 100 Index and the Dow Jones SAFE Pakistan Index. www.djindexes.com
FTSE Group launched the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Indexes. www.ftse.com
Russell Investments added seven initial public offerings to the Russell Global Index. Russell Investments and Indxis, Inc. signed an agreement to create products based on Indxis’ proprietary Dividend Achievers methodology. www.russell.com
INDXIS, a unit of Mergent, Inc., has entered into a strategic alliance agreement with Russell Indexes. www.indxis.com
Other
CRG West added Wolverine Trading to its New York data center. www.crgwest.com
Fiserv, Inc. released its Message WorkFlow Manager solution. www.fiserv.com
Interactive Brokers Group announced the winner of its fourth annual electronic trading Olympiad for colleges, Kevin Warner of Columbia University. www.interactivebrokers.com
