CBOT To Launch Mini-Sized Ag Contracts On eCBOT
CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--The Chicago Board of Trade (BOT) will launch mini-sized agricultural futures contracts on its e-cbot electronic trading platform, the exchange said Thursday in a press release.
The launch is scheduled for mid-second quarter 2007, the exchange said.
The mini-sized contracts that will be listed are mini-sized corn, mini-sized soybeans and mini-sized wheat futures. The mini contracts are 1,000 bushels, one-fifth the size of their full-sized counterparts.
Electronic trading hours for these contracts will be 7:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. EDT Sunday through Friday, the exchange said.
Mini-sized corn, soybean and wheat futures contracts will continue to trade in the open-auction market from 10:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. EDT, Monday through Friday.
Open-auction volume in the three pit-traded mini contracts is a combined 137,658 contracts through the first two months of 2007, down 1.4% from the 139,637 contracts traded the same time last year.
The smaller-sized contracts are designed to offer global customers, particularly in Asia, a smaller contract sized to their needs, the exchange said in the release.
"By launching our mini-grains electronically, the CBOT is once again providing our customers choice, and the opportunity to access our markets globally, in a size customary to their trading and time zones and in a more competitive environment," said CBOT Senior Vice President of Business Development Robert Ray in the release.
E-cbot trading of full-sized corn, soybeans and wheat futures has grown sharply since day-time trading was introduced in August 2006.
In February, volume of electronically traded full-size corn, soybeans and wheat futures was a combined 4.98 million contracts compared to the 3.99 million contracts traded in open-auction activity, according to data on the CBOT Web site |
