does anyone know if there are electronic soybean or corn contracts available? if so during what time are they traded and is it possible to see the bid-ask via interactive brokers? thanks for any replies. klink
Electronic grain futures recently became available, but are you asking about electronic options? Right now grain options are still pit-traded only. Feel free to give me a call if you have questions about the futures or options.
IB has said they will have electronic grain options by December 1st. Being that it's now December 14th...
The actual trading is still done in the pit. I just asked the CBOT if they have any plans to offer the grain options electronically, and they said there are no plans at this time. It is possible to submit orders for grain options over an electronic platform with my firm, but the order still ends up in the pit. Maybe IB is trying to do the same. However, I tell my clients that trade options they are probably better off phoning in their orders anyway. The reason is because of the bid/ask info. It's hardly ever available electronically....even if you're using Esignal or other data vendor. It's just the nature of the pit options. That bid/ask spread can be pretty wide and I don't see how you trade effectively without it. So most of my clients will phone the order to our order desk and we'll make a phone call to get a live bid/ask quote over the phone.
Oddly, eCBOT is showing actively updating bids and asks for January wheat strikes ranging from 475 to 540 (and has contracts listed for 430 up to 660). The pit, on the other hand, is showing only a few open strikes (being a serial and all) and only a 480 Put posted bid & ask. I'm not saying there's active trading going on electronically, but clearly someone is making the effort to post bids and asks for all sorts of strikes on eCBOT. That would seem to indicate "soon" is a possibility. Elsewhere, CME just started trading electronic hogs, cattle, and options on each.
I'm seeing some bid/ask coming in on Esignal, but it's still pretty spotty. Try checking other months and other markets and you'll see that the bid/ask is often not available. These bid/ask quotes are coming from the pit. The grain options aren't an electronic product yet, but who knows---some day they could be.
These bid/ask quotes are NOT coming from the pit, they're on eCBOT. Wheat Feb eCBOT: ... 540C - 2 5/8 bid, 4 7/8 ask 535C - 3 2/8 bid, 5 4/8 ask 530C - 3 7/8 bid, 6 2/8 ask 525C - 4 5/8 bid, 7 ask 520C - 5 5/8 bid, 8 ask 515C - 6 5/8 bid, 9 ask 510C - 7 6/8 bid, 10 2/8 ask 505C - 9 1/8 bid, 11 5/8 ask 500C - 10 5/8 bid, 13 2/8 ask 495C - 12 3/8 bid, 15 ask ... Wheat Feb pit: 600C - 4/8 bid, no ask 530C - no bid, no ask 520C - no bid, no ask 510C - no bid, no ask 500C - no bid, no ask That's it Does eSignal show you a total of 8 strikes or 31 for Wheat Feb? I have 8 from the pit, 31 on eCBOT.
Quick question. I know that most commodities have went electronic and can be traded pretty much all day/night. Is there any plans for options to go the same route?
I called the CBOT and asked, but they tell me they don't have plans to offer the grain options electronically yet. CBOT did recently bring the metals options online for electronic trading so I imagine they may one day do the same with grains.