Chicago Mercantile Exchange Class B Shareholders Approve Eurodollar Proposal Eurodollar Futures Volume on GLOBEX® Exceeds Required Threshold Levels CHICAGO, March 16, 2004 â In a Special Shareholder Meeting held today, Class B Shareholders of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME) approved a proposal authorizing its Board of Directors to transition the front two contracts of the exchangeâs benchmark Eurodollar futures product onto its GLOBEX platform if minimum volume thresholds are not maintained. More than 82 percent of the votes cast were in favor of the proposal. With the approval of this proposal, CMEâs Board of Directors will have the authority to transition electronic trading of these two contracts in an orderly fashion under the following circumstances: If electronic trading during the regular trading hours session in the first nearby quarterly contract fails to achieve at least 25 percent of the combined electronic and open outcry Eurodollar trading volumes during the regular trading hours session in that contract by April 30, 2004; or If electronic trading during the regular trading hours session in the second nearby quarterly contract fails to achieve at least 20 percent of the combined electronic and open outcry Eurodollar trading volumes during the regular trading hours session in that contract by April 30, 2004; or If, on an ongoing basis, electronic trading volumes of these contract months fall below the established percentage thresholds for three consecutive five day trading periods, which will be measured from the end of each trading week (and excluding the four week period following each expiration of the second nearby quarterly contract). âBy endorsing this proposal, our Class B Shareholders have provided CMEâs leadership with the flexibility to act decisively and effectively to maintain the strong levels of liquidity in our benchmark Eurodollar futures contract that customers worldwide have come to expect from CME markets,â said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. âThis vote demonstrates the forward thinking of our members and their understanding of the need to ensure their Board has every tool available to safeguard all of CMEâs core products.â âWe are pleased our Class B Shareholders have approved this proposal,â said Craig Donohue, CMEâs Chief Executive Officer. âIt is important to note that volumes in these contract months have already exceeded the minimum threshold requirements, with approximately 31 percent of the June contract and 26 percent of the September contract already trading on GLOBEX for the five day trading period ending on and including March 12. We fully expect this trend to continue based on the competitive pricing and distribution strategies we have put in place in response to the needs of our customers.â CMEâs Eurodollar futures and options on futures contracts, which serve as a benchmark for investors worldwide, have set numerous trading and open interest records in recent weeks. On March 5, total volume for Eurodollar futures, one of the most actively traded financial contracts in the world, reached 2,177,217, setting a new record and exceeding two million contracts for the first time ever. On the same date, GLOBEX Eurodollar volume also set a new record at 405,855 and open interest in Eurodollars exceeded six million contract positions for the first time. Eurodollar options on futures have also set open interest records in recent weeks. Since the beginning of March, daily volume in Eurodollar futures on GLOBEX has averaged 235,687 contracts, twice the level of the first two months of 2004
The Eurodollar on LIFFE CONNECT(R) - Today! The Derivative Event of the Year. Today, 18 March 2004, the trading of the Eurodollar has been transformed. For the first time, all the benefits enjoyed by Euronext.liffe=92s customers trading our existing world-leading portfolio of Short Term Interest Rate contracts, are now available to the Eurodollar market around the world. See it on a screen near you! Eurodollar links: Eurodollar Quote Vendor Codes http://www.liffe.com/products/stirs/eurodollar/index.jsp?SubSection=3DFour Eurodollar http://www.liffe.com/products/stirs/eurodollar/index.jsp?SubSection=3DThree The Eurodollar on LIFFE CONNECT(R) http://www.liffe.com/products/stirs/eurodollar/index.jsp?SubSection=3DSeven Eurodollar pricing http://www.liffe.com/products/stirs/eurodollar/index.jsp?SubSection=3DSix Eurodollar liquidity http://www.liffe.com/products/stirs/eurodollar/index.jsp?SubSection=3DFive
13,452 contracts LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Apr04 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar May04 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Jun04 3674 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Jul04 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Aug04 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Sep04 3974 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Dec04 2967 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Mar05 938 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Jun05 1092 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Sep05 807 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Dec05 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Mar06 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Jun06 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Sep06 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Dec06 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Mar07 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Jun07 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Sep07 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Dec07 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Mar08 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Jun08 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Sep08 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Dec08 0 LIFFE 3M Eurodollar Mar09 0
LIFFE's Eurodollar assault on CME kicks off By Ros Krasny BOCA RATON, Fla., March 18 (Reuters) - The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange saw moderate first-day trading in its new Eurodollar contracts on Thursday as it goes head to head with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange <CME.N>. Final volume at the end of the U.S. trading day was 13,720 contracts in futures and 206 in options, the exchange said. LIFFE's new offering is part of a wave of cross-listed derivative contracts among the major global futures exchanges. Hugh Freedberg, chief executive officer of LIFFE, said the industry was innovating through technology and the new contract was part of this. "What you are seeing now is that technology is enabling major exchanges to compete globally. As global competition develops, exchanges will offer products they were not able to offer before," he told Reuters in Boca Raton at the annual Futures Industry Association convention. Results for the first day's trading had been keenly awaited as global industry leaders met for the convention. Eurodollars have been the near-exclusive domain of the CME, which created the contract in 1981. Eurodollars, U.S. dollar-denominated time deposits held in commercial banks outside the United States, were for years the world's busiest futures contract, ceding that title in 2003 to Eurex bunds. The CME, the largest U.S. futures exchange, has taken steps to safeguard its flagship contract, such as cutting trading fees and encouraging futures dealers to switch to the Globex electronic platform away from the open outcry pit. This week, the CME announced an initiative to start on July 26 that will attempt to shift more Eurodollar options to Globex. LIFFE's Eurodollar contracts will be offered throughout the European and U.S. trading day, with market-making at its heaviest around U.S. opening time. LIFFE hopes to introduce a slew of new customers to the Eurodollar market through its links to Continental European banks who were not linked to CME. The exchange trades an array of short-term interest rate (STIR) contracts, led by the 3-month Euribor. Traders were keen to have all the STIR contracts available on the same trading platform, Freedberg said. Freedberg said old industry lore that two identical contracts could not coexist at different exchanges may not apply in all cases. "In the past people used to say 'winner takes all,' but in a sufficiently large market it is perfectly possible to have more than one pool of liquidity," he said. The craze for cloned contracts was started by German-Swiss Eurex, which launched its Eurex US exchange in February to trade U.S. Treasury derivatives identical to those at the Chicago Board of Trade, the No. 2 U.S. futures exchange. The CBOT shot back, announcing it will list derivatives similar to Eurex's core offerings in German debt. A start date has not been set. Patrice Blanc, chairman and chief executive officer of Fimat International Banque, said the struggle over volume and liquidity in Eurodollars was more intriguing than Eurex's competition with the CBOT. "It's a different dynamic. It's more about electronic versus open outcry, while Eurex mainly offered low fees to compete with the CBOT," Blanc told Reuters in Boca Raton. LIFFE's "more discrete" product launch compared with Eurex US had avoided creating lofty expectations, he said.
206 on the options. Liffe claiming tight spreads all day as well so looks like the market makers did their job.