Eurex US Russell 1000 futures volume tops CME's
Tue Feb 8, 2005 05:00 PM ET
CHICAGO, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Volume for Eurex US's new Russell 1000 large-cap stock index futures jumped ahead of the established Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME.N: Quote, Profile, Research) version on Tuesday, its third day of trading.
Exchange data show the Eurex US contract (FWRH5: Quote, Profile, Research) traded 1,870 contracts on Tuesday as of 4:15 p.m. EST (2115 GMT) against 1,345 contracts in CME Russell 1000 futures (RSSH5: Quote, Profile, Research) .
The busiest derivative based on a Russell Investment Group index is still the CME's e-mini Russell 2000 small-cap futures, which traded over 67,000 contracts on Tuesday compared with 6,201 contracts for the Eurex US version.
Eurex US, an offshoot of Eurex AG, the world's largest derivatives exchange, partnered with Russell of Tacoma, Washington, to launch the contracts on Friday.
The year-old exchange is expanding beyond U.S. Treasury futures, which have made little impression on the Chicago Board of Trade's dominant market-share.
The New York Board of Trade and the Chicago Board Options Exchange's futures arm, CFE, also trade Russell futures.
Russell hopes to increase volume in futures based on its products, especially institutional hedging business, by allowing similar contracts to be listed on multiple exchanges.
Unlike stocks or stock options, futures contracts are not fungible in that a position opened on Eurex US could not be offset on the CME and vice versa.
Eurex US is paying about 20 market-makers a monthly stipend to provide liquidity for its new contracts and has also waived transaction fees for three months.
As a measure of large-cap stocks, the Russell 1000 contract lags behind the CME's S&P 100 contracts. The largest U.S. futures exchange in January traded 764,482 full-sized S&P 500 futures and 15.4 million e-mini S&P futures.
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