What is the CME$INDEX really? http://www.cme.com/trading/prd/about_DR2461.html It says it's seven different currencies. This is essentially a hedge against an across the board weakness in the dollar? What is the DX? http://www.nybot.com/marketInfo/contractSpecs/showIndividualContractSpecs.asp?productGroupID=29 See attached. Alright who trades what? Where's the action?
The "DX" is the older dollar index traded at the nybot. It's been around a while the CME $ index is fairly new but I suspect will be more successful simply because more traders already have access to cme data/products. The excel chart you posted shows the trade weighted % of each currency against the US$ for each of these indexes. They're really very similar. Probably will come down to an issue of liquidity/spreads.
I was hoping to trade the CME$Index futures while waiting for the NYBOT DX futures to begin trading on ICE (and eventually available via IB). However, I don't see any active bid/ask prices for the CME$Index March futures. IB won't show any trades or even a chart.. Price information on CME's site shows the CME$Index is similarly dead in both pit- and Globex-trading. I wonder if this product simply never took off and ended up DOA. I can't even pull up a chart of the index itself through any of the primary charting sites. I'm hoping the NYBOT moves swiftly to include the DX on ICE.
Someone posted here about the CME $ index a while ago and may have even looked into it, and came back with an answer from the CME that no one will make a market for it, so there it is - dead in the water (along with many of there other markets). I too have never seen any bids or ask when I look at it, mostly out of curiousity, and am sorta anxious for the NYBOT one to start trading electronically.
Nick, Thanks for the info. It's a shame that it's dead. I think the CME would've been much better off simply cloning the DX straight up, rather than tinkering with the currency weighting and creating an entirely different index apart from the globally-followed DX. They could've followed the CBOT's footsteps with how they cloned COMEX's metal futures, which basically forced COMEX/NYMEX to pair up with CME to compete with CBOT in the electronic market (along with ICE). If CME had cloned the DX and offered it around the clock on Globex, I think it would've seen much more interest. I'm also surprised that ICE/NYBOT did not include the DX futures as part of their Feb. roll-out onto ICE. Hopefully we'll see it by spring time..
So right now there is no way to trade the Futures of US $ Index on IB? What makes adding NYBOT to IB such an issue, anybody know?
Correct. The NYBOT is an archaic dinosaur and the last vestige of floor-only trading pretty much on the planet, which is why IB doesn't offer NYBOT trading to its retail clients, because orders cannot be electronically-routed. I've read on these forums that large IB clients do have access to the NYBOT pits, but I cannot confirm whether that is true. It does strike me as odd that IB never supported the NYBOT at the retail level, as retail IB clients can trade the pits at CBOT and CME.
NYBOT $ INDEX to trade electronically starting June 15th ICE Announces June 15 Launch of Electronic NYBOT U.S. Dollar Index and Russell 1000® Futures Contracts Atlanta, GA (May 15, 2007) â IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE), the leading electronic energy marketplace and soft commodity exchange, today announced that electronic trading in key index futures contracts offered by the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) will begin on Friday, June 15, 2007. The contracts include the U.S. Dollar Index® (USDX) and the Russell 1000® full-size and mini-sized indexes listed at NYBOT. Trading hours are from 8:00 p.m. ET through 4:15 p.m. ET each trading day. These futures contracts, as well as options on these futures, currently trade in the NYBOT floor-based markets.