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December
The Chicago Board Options Exchange has conducted a tender offer to redeem for cash 15% of the restricted shares held by former seatholders on the demutualised exchange.
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The Chicago Board Options Exchange has launched its new US equity options platform C2 Options Exchange, the ninth exchange in the market.
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Europe has come a step closer to unifying its electricity market with the joint launch of the Central West European price market coupling and Central West European-Nordic tight volume coupling.
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ELX Futures has pleaded with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to conduct a six month review into New York Portfolio Clearing, saying it has concerns that NYSE Euronext’s planned clearing house contravenes US competition law in several ways.
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Audrey Faveeuw has become business development manager in the London Stock Exchange’s business development team, which covers both equity and derivatives markets.
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The innovations made by exchanges in 2009-10 that most impressed our judges, from US interest rates to agricultural markets in India. Read our full reports on the innovations of the year.
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The London Stock Exchange is launching equity derivatives on its pan-European multilateral trading facility Turquoise, “starting with FTSE futures”. The service will be ready for 2011, the LSE announced.
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Paulina McGroarty has become head of Europe, Middle East and Russia at Singapore Exchange’s listings unit.
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Jens Henriksson has become president of Nasdaq OMX Stockholm and head of Nasdaq OMX’s Nordic fixed income and funds business.
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The London Stock Exchange Group has received regulatory permission to launch international single stock futures on the Italian Derivatives Exchange Market.
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NYSE Liffe will shortly start a customer consultation on its plans to build two clearing houses to open in 2012.
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Former LCH.Clearnet chief executive Patrick Birley has joined the London Stock Exchange and is believed to be working on the exchange’s new clearing house venture.
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The IPO window for exchanges appears to be wide open.
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The Tokyo Grain Exchange said it had discussed the possibility of a merger with the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, confirming rumours that have been circulating for months.
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Tocom has launched trading on the Chukyo Oil Market.
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November
The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission have concluded that the stockmarket ‘flash crash’ of May 6 was caused by a single large trade in E-Mini S&P 500 Futures, which snowballed into a crisis.
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Borsa Italiana, part of the London Stock Exchange Group, has extended its license and support agreement with Cinnober for the real-time market data system DDM Plus until the end of 2011.
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Boston Options Exchange CEO Tony McCormick has told FOW he is keen to see TMX Group’s controlling stake in the bourse reduced.
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Citadel Securities will be the designated primary market maker for the CBOE Futures Exchange’s Weekly Options on Vix Futures, launched on September 28.
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Michael Prokop has become the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s managing director for energy products.
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Deutsche Börse has celebrated its 425th anniversary.
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The European Commission has approved the proposed purchase of Belpex by the energy exchange APX-Endex.
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To cope with today’s fast-evolving market, exchanges regularly upgrade their technology. Tanzeel Akhtar examines the challenges and opportunities exchanges face when overhauling their systems.
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The first transactions on Forts, the derivatives market of RTS, were concluded on September 19, 2001, nine years ago.
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The Global Board of Trade, Mauritius’ new multi-asset exchange backed by India’s Financial Technologies Group, launched on October 15, offering futures on gold, silver and five currency pairs for trading from October 18.
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Jaroslaw Ziebiec, head of the financial instruments department at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, is to step down, FOW understands.
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The London Stock Exchange is in talks with a group of US and European banks with the aim of building a deposit fund for a new clearing house, and has hired Patrick Birley, former CEO of LCH.Clearnet and the European Climate Exchange, to work on the project.
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NYSE Euronext announced that Tim Kinslow has been appointed global head of systems development for the company’s information technology division, which is responsible for global systems development efforts across all of NYSE Euronext.
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The Tokyo Stock Exchange will use NYSE Technologies to build and support a new futures trading platform for the exchange.
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Orc Software is providing access to the Singapore Mercantile Exchange, which opened for trading on August 31.
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The Chicago Board Options Exchange has no immediate acquisition plans, a senior executive said, as the group prepares to launch its second options platform and offers the first options contract on its CBOE Futures Exchange.
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RTS Realtime Systems has released a gateway for its RTD Tango and RTD Tango Trader clients, accessing CME with an internal latency of 100-150 microseconds.
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The Singapore Mercantile Exchange plans to introduce iron ore futures linked to the Metal Bulletin Iron Ore Index.
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Simon Brown of Cambridge Quants argues that the historic separation of markets owes more to cultural divides than rationality. More importantly, these markets are about to merge.
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The Tokyo Commodity Exchange has begun closer collaboration with the Japan Commodity Clearing House after becoming its majority shareholder, with a view to modernising it.
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International Securities Exchange will start using a new trading engine from next month. “It will be a phased migration from the end of November,” confirmed Kapil Rathi, ISE’s director of product management, at the FIA/OIC New York Equity Options Conference.
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CME Group, has faced down a string of pretenders to its crown in recent years. Now new rivals are arming for battle. As David Wigan discovers, CME shows no sign of being worried – but the uprising may be more serious.
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October
Deutsche Börse will begin implementing two new technology interfaces in the trading systems of Eurex and the Xetra cash market this year, with completion in 2011.
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Nasdaq OMX officials say that the group will upgrade its equity, derivatives and fixed income trading platform technology to Genium Inet in late October.
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Japanese firm KVH and Singapore Telecommunications have announced that Tokyo Commodity Exchange and Singapore Mercantile Exchange will offer market participants access to KVH-SingTel’s low latency network technology.
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The Chicago Board Options Exchange expects to launch C2, its second US options exchange, in late October.
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The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has declared that ELX Futures’ Exchange of Futures for Futures offering is not illegal, contradicting CME Group’s rationale for rejecting the transactions.
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Plus Markets, a small and mid-cap stock exchange based in London, confirmed that it is moving into derivatives.
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The ACE Derivatives and Commodity Exchange will go live within weeks after winning regulatory approval to list a suite of derivatives nationally.
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Figures released by the Warsaw Stock Exchange show that trading on the bourse’s derivatives market continues to be dominated by individual investors, who were responsible for 52% of futures and 58% of options volume.
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The Singapore Mercantile Exchange began trading on August 31, bringing to an end a two year wait.
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With volumes jumping by half during a recession-hit 2009 – after more than doubling for the previous three years – the Turkish Derivatives Exchange has made a solid start. But as Tom Osborn discovers, the exchange has much bigger plans.
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September
The Australian Securities Exchange will launch ASX Net, a managed low latency solution for connectivity to the Australian financial market, in September.
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The Turkish Derivatives Exchange has partnered with CQG, the order execution and analytics provider for electronically traded futures.
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India has taken several major steps towards improving the regulatory environment for its booming derivatives market.
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The Chicago Board Options Exchange has won its legal battle with the International Securities Exchange to keep the exclusive rights to list its suite of index options.
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Five new trading firms joined NYSE Amex Options as market makers on July 12.
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The Johannesburg Stock Exchange has adopted the ‘maker taker’ pricing model for its equity derivatives, and has cut trading fees for single stock futures and options traded through the central order book almost to zero.
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Five US trading firms have created a new exchange in Chicago, offering interest rate swap futures.
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The Singapore Exchange plans to introduce mini monthly metals futures contracts, beginning in the first quarter of 2011.
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The Tehran Stock Exchange has launched trading in single stock futures, beginning with the two most liquid stocks, Parsian Bank and Karafarin Bank.
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The consolidation of Japan’s derivatives exchanges accelerated again when Tocom said it would be interested in listing three of Tokyo Grain Exchange’s most active futures.
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August
The international network of equity index derivatives is thickening fast.
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The Warsaw Stock Exchange has chosen NYSE Euronext as its strategic partner for all software development. The first joint project will be to develop the WSE’s new trading engine.
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The London Stock Exchange’s chief technology officer, Robin Paine, is to leave the exchange.
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CBOE Holdings brought the long process of its demutualisation to a close on June 14 by pricing its initial public offering on Nasdaq at $29 a share – the top end of a price range that began at $27.
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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has rejected a rule amendment proposed by the Options Clearing Corporation.
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The Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange has announced plans for an overhaul of its trading setup, dubbed the Micex+ project.
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The Japanese government has issued a proposal to combine the trading of commodity futures and financial derivatives at a single trading venue by 2013.
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July
The Tehran Stock Exchange has launched trading in single stock futures, beginning with the two most liquid stocks, Parsian Bank and Karafarin Bank.
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Milan’s Italian Derivatives Exchange Market boasts a diverse customer base of local retail and institutional investors, prop shops and banks. Tom Osborn visits the exchange fast becoming the jewel in the LSE’s crown.
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Two exchanges have long dominated European financial derivatives – Eurex and Liffe. Nic Bertrand, the LSE’s head of equities and derivatives, told Siân Williams why he thinks the LSE can shake up the hierarchy.
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It’s lucky the cavalry happened to be passing. Deputies O’Malia and Dunn were sound asleep when Cantor and Veriana’s Knockabout Hollywood Carnival rolled into town and tried to pitch its tents in the main square.
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The Rosario Futures Exchange has enjoyed its strongest month since the advent of the financial crisis, with 5.8m contracts changing hands, up from 5.5m traded in June 2009.
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The Chicago Board Options Exchange yesterday (July 9) won its legal battle with the International Securities Exchange to keep the exclusive rights to list its suite of index options.
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The Johannesburg Stock Exchange has adopted maker taker pricing for equity derivatives, and cut trading fees for single stock futures and options traded through the central order book to almost zero.
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BM&F Bovespa, the Brazilian exchange, has enjoyed a strong month of trading in its equity options segment.
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The Polish Futures Market, a subsidiary of the Warsaw Commodities Exchange (WGT), has signed an agreement with WDX Organisation to list Wocu Futures and Options.
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June
The Warsaw Stock Exchange looks to have won its long-fought battle with Polish regulators to allow the short selling of stocks.
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May was a record month for the global futures and options markets – and by a huge margin. FOi’s database reports that 2.204bn contracts changed hands in the month.
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Japan's derivatives market has not kept up with advances elsewhere. But now there are signs that the exchanges have realised the situation is desperate. They are performing long-overdue IT upgrades and launching new contracts – but is it too late? Colin Packham reports.
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The CFTC has approved Media Derivatives' application for derivatives on box office revenues. However, two CFTC commissioners, Bart Chilton and Jill Sommers, disagreed with the decision and issued dissenting opinions.
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US equity exchanges will begin today (Friday June 11) implementing new circuit breaker rules, designed to prevent a repeat of the May 6 ‘flash crash’.
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Despite the enormous numbers of derivatives being traded on China’s exchanges, the authorities are intent on establishing secure, non-speculative markets than on promoting volume growth. Colin Packham reports.
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Green Exchange has opened the first international office of its subsidiary, Green Exchange International. Les Male will be managing director and head of the EU/UK office. Henrik Hasselknippe is managing director, global product development.
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NYSE Euronext’s chief operating officer Lawrence Leibowitz said on May 4 it had sold its 5% stake in the National Stock Exchange of India for gross proceeds of $175m after the stake failed to produce strategic benefits. The buyer is Temasek Holdings, the Singaporean government investment company.
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Sir Brian Bender has become chairman of the London Metal Exchange and LME Holdings, replacing Donald Brydon, who has stepped down to focus on his work with Royal Mail and the Smiths Group.
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Two proposed exchanges that would allow investors to hedge the risk of the profitability of Hollywood movies have polarised the US film industry. Wyn Jenkins reports on box office futures.
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The Singapore Mercantile Exchange, the start-up derivatives market owned by Indian technology firm Financial Technologies, has said it will finally go live in August with an offering of commodity contracts.
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The Singapore Mercantile Exchange will list a cash-settled West Texas Intermediate crude oil future when it opens for business in August.
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The Tokyo Commodity Exchange and the Singapore Commodity Exchange signed an agreement yesterday (Tuesday June 1) to cross-list key contracts, so as to promote “arbitrage opportunities and overall liquidity”.
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May
As Hugo Cox discovers, there is plenty of appetite for high speed trading in Asia and Brazil, from both the traders and the exchanges. All that needs to happen is for barriers to be cleared away.
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China has confirmed that it will allow Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors to trade the China Financial Futures Exchange’s CSI 300 equity index futures.
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Eurex has shaken up its customer and sales strategies, creating two new clearing teams and a new product management and services team to sit between its product development and sales teams, FOi has learned.
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Derivatives trading has been volatile and volume has been high for a second week running, after the agreement of a euro zone debt rescue package last weekend and the formation of a new government in the UK.
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In a tightly controlled derivatives market like India’s, regulatory permission to launch a new product is like the starting gun in a race. As Benjamin Beasley-Murray reports, the hardest battle now is over FX derivatives.
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The Bahrain Financial Exchange has confirmed that it will be formally launched in October. It will list cash instruments, derivatives, structured products and Sharia-compliant financial instruments.
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CME Group has bought the right to offer cleared over the counter swaps based on Net Energy’s Canadian Daily Index for Western Canadian Select Heavy grade crude oil. The group will offer cash-settled swaps on its Nymex trading floor, with clearing through its ClearPort clearing service
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Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange plans to introduce three currency futures on June 15. These will be on the Swiss franc, Australian dollar and Canadian dollar, all against the US dollar. They will be cleared by the Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation.
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The European Climate Exchange has ruled that Carbon Emission Reduction certificates generated by large hydroelectric projects will not be included in its basket of eligible CER types.
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Eurex is set to launch butter and skimmed milk powder futures in the second quarter of 2010. Both will be settled in cash, based on spot market references.
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India’s National Spot Exchange has launched what it called the first mini gold contract aimed at the retail market. Investors can trade gold in one gramme denominations.
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The Indonesian Commodity and Derivatives Exchange plans to list crude palm oil futures this month. The launch of the commodity will intensify competition in the region for dominance in crude palm oil trading.
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NYSE Liffe will launch malting barley futures and options on May 10. The euro-denominated contracts will be based on malting barley from any European origin and have a lot size of 50 tonnes. The exchange suggested they could be used for hedging by maltsters, brewers and distillers.
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The London Metal Exchange has issued the first warrants based on its new cobalt contracts, introduced on February 22.
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Nasdaq OMX PHLX, the US options exchange, has listed options contracts based on the level of its QNet index of internet stocks. Launched in 2007, the index tracks the performance of web-based service firms, such as those that host domains, access providers and site designers.
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The New York Mercantile Exchange will launch eight petroleum swap futures on April 25. They are the Singapore Mogas 95 unleaded vs. Singapore Mogas 92 unleaded spread (Platts), European 3.5% fuel oil (Platts) cargoes FOB Med BALMO, Singapore fuel oil 180 cst (Platts) crack spread, East-west naphtha: Japan C&F vs. cargoes CIF NEW spread (Platts), European 1% fuel oil cargoes FOB Med (Platts), European 1% fuel oil cargoes FOB Med vs. European 1% fuel oil cargoes FOB NEW spread (Platts), Mont Belvieu ethylene (PCW) financial and Mont Belvieu ethylene (PCW) BALMO.
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NYSE Euronext will launch a dividend index future on the Amsterdam Exchange Index on May 3. It is based on the cumulative value of ordinary gross cash dividends from the individual constituents of the AEX index over one year. The period begins on the business day after the third Friday in December.
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NYSE Liffe US will list interest rate futures in the third quarter of the year, to coincide with the opening of New York Portfolio Clearing, the joint venture between the exchange and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation.
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Japan’s Osaka Securities Exchange and Jasdaq Securities Exchange announced in early April that the merger between the two exchanges had been completed.
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Deutsche Börse Group’s remuneration report for 2009 shows a fall in performance-related remuneration for the exchange’s senior management. The exchange has already announced restructuring plans that will involve substantial job cuts (see FOW, April 2010).
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The Singapore Exchange will list futures on the soon-to-be-launched Nikkei Stock Average Dividend Point Index by the third quarter of this year, subject to approval by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
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The Tokyo Commodities Exchange is to relist its gas oil futures contract on May 6, in response to calls from Japan’s oil and gas industry to restart trading amid rising volatility.
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The Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Commodity Exchange have finalised their agreement to introduce a Japanese carbon trading exchange. When live, the new Japanese carbon exchange will be the first dedicated carbon bourse in Asia.
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BM&F Bovespa, the Brazilian securities, commodities and futures exchange, has said it will launch cash-settled hydrous ethanol futures and options on May 17.
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In an intervioew with FOW, Jun Li, executive vice president at the Dalian Commodity Exchange, has said the exchange is examining increasing its product suite.
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Intercontinental Exchange’s £395m ($604m) takeover of Climate Exchange will give the group a further grip on the booming European energy markets, a senior London-based analyst has said.
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Vincent Cable, the Liberal Democrat shadow Chancellor, has said the exchange-traded futures industry serves as a model of transparency for the effective running of financial markets.
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April
The Green Exchange has applied to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for designated contract market status.
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March was a dramatic month in listed derivatives markets, Futures and Options Intelligence's data report revealed this week.
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Demand for the new Chinese equity index future has continued to build after its strong launch on Friday April 16.
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Forts, the futures and options division of the Russian Trading System Stock Exchange, is planning to expand its suite of single stock options.
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Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing is to build a new data centre, so it can expand and consolidate existing operations scattered across diffuse locations.
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Mercado Mexicano de Derivados, the Mexican derivatives exchange, is planning to expand its suite of volatility products, as well as launching derivatives on exchange-traded funds.
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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has approved the set-up of Trend Exchange, a market for trading futures on US film box office receipts.
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Intercontinental Exchange’s CDS clearing subsidiary, ICE Trust US, has appointed Christopher Edmonds as president, replacing Dirk Pruis. He will be responsible for managing the operational and regulatory aspects of ICE Trust.
Edmonds was previously chief executive of International Derivatives Clearing Group. He has also been chief development officer for Icap Energy and chief executive of Icap Futures.
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Michael Overlander, Sucden Financial’s chief executive, and Jim Coupland, head of base metals at Standard Bank, have been re-elected to the boards of LME Holdings and the London Metal Exchange.
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Patsystems’ J-Trader and Pro-Mark trading platforms can now be used to trade the Singapore Commodity Exchange’s RSS3 and TSR20 rubber contracts. The platforms provide risk management tools and connectivity to global markets from a single screen.
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Singapore Exchange will introduce a future on robusta coffee, physically delivered in Vietnam, if its members do not object to a change in its clearing rules that would permit the launch.
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Thomas Siegl will become chief risk officer at European Commodity Clearing on May 1. He will leave BHF-Bank in Frankfurt, where he is responsible for the central risk management division. ECC clears trades on the European Energy Exchange.
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The costs of surveillance and compliance systems for brokers, exchanges and multilateral trading facilities are expected to reach Eu185m by 2012, according to a report by Tabb Group, the research firm.
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Large companies moaning about having to post collateral against derivatives have forgotten the real value of hedging, argues Philip McBride Johnson.
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Interest in gold, silver and other precious metals has soared during the financial crisis – and with it their prices. But is this just a speculative craze that will vanish as quickly as it came? Owen Sanderson reports.
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The closure of the world's trading pits has isolated traders in front of flashing screens from Korea to Essex. Now, the social media phenomenon is offering to reconnect people - and futures and options specialists are loving it. Tom Osborn reports.
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It was a long time coming, but the recovery in listed interest rate derivatives now seems well under way. But as Elise Coroneos reports, the market will not just go back to the way it was; this year is going to be lively.
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BM&F’s 2008 merger with São Paulo’s Bovespa created the world’s third largest stock exchange, catapulting the group to a position of global influence. Tom Osborn meets the man driving the bourse's international expansion.
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The Nordic region has a vibrant listed derivative market with three financial exchanges. Nasdaq OMX's split with EDX and Oslo Børs has opened a new era of unbridled competition. Can all three can stay in the game? Colin Packham reports.
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Celebrating its 100th birthday last year, the Rofex is enjoying record volumes. It is merging with the Rosario Stock Exchange, and a deal with the Buenos Aires Futures Market is in the air. Tom Osborn meets the bourse's COO, Ismael Caram.
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Futures and Options World invites market participants to choose the cleverest and most useful innovations of the past year.
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Cement is one of the world’s most widely used and traded materials. Yet all attempts to offer futures on it have failed. Ben Beasley-Murray investigates.
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Philip McBride Johnson argued in a recent comment article against ELX Futures’ desire to use exchange of futures for futures. Here, Neal Wolkoff, chief executive of ELX Futures, responds to that article.
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March
New contracts typically struggle to succeed. And they struggle all the more when times are tough. But, as Colin Packham discovers, while the majority of most new contracts in 2009 failed to attract interest, there were some notable winners, particularly in China.
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BM&F Bovespa and CETIP are readying a series of initiatives that should incentivise diversity in an equity options market dominated by just two names. Elise Coroneos reports.
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With a record 3.6bn equity options contracts traded last year and some nine exchanges serving the market by the end of the year, is there room for more growth? Elise Coroneos reports.
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The battle between CME Group and ELX Futures over exchange of futures for futures should not be happening, argues Philip McBride Johnson. ELX is simply trying to free-ride on CME’s liquidity.
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India. Long on potential but often seen as short on delivery. But that traditional view of the country’s commodity derivatives markets is changing fast. Colin Packham reports on their rapid, if bumpy, ride to success.
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The Copenhagen summit was a heavy blow to the hopes of environmentalists – and to prospects for a much bigger global carbon market. But emissions traders are taking it in their stride, as Siân Williams discovers.
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The exceptional surge in Brazilian interest rate futures trading last week was caused by uncertainty over the future of the Brazilian central bank’s rate setting team, a source has told FOW.
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Market players on the continet have welcomed Eurex's decision to became the world’s first exchange to conduct its risk management fully in real time.
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On March 2, FOW travelled to São Paulo to offer a unique forum for the key players in the Latin American derivatives market, exploring the opportunities and challenges currently facing in the region.
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Argentina’s leading futures exchanges, the Mercado a Término de Buenos Aires and Rosario Futures Exchange, are holding talks on a possible merger, FOW has learned.
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Mercado Mexicano de Derivados’s order routing deal with CME Group will aim to match that of its neighbour BM&F Bovespa’s, MexDer CEO Jorge Alegría has told FOW.
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Charles Li Xiaojia succeeded Chow Manyiu as chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, in mid-January. Li will be the first chief executive of HKEx with a mainland Chinese background, having been educated in China and then the US. He was chairman of JP Morgan China from 2003 to 2009 and a non-executive director of the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.
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Bursa Malaysia and Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX) have signed a commercial agreement to provide financial products to Islamic market participants and strengthen bilateral ties between the two.
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The China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFE) has approved 13 new members including Chinese brokerages and Morgan Stanley. This brings the total number of members to 124 including 15 full members, 61 clearing only members and 48 trading members.
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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has recommended that ICE Futures US should expand its regulatory oversight team after concluding that its compliance team was under “notable strain”.
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CME Group will acquire 90% of Dow Jones Indexes in a joint venture which will leave Dow Jones with a 10% stake. Dow Jones, which is owned by News Corp, will gain $607.5m for 90% of the business, which the deal values at $675m. CME Group will contribute some market data services, which it has valued at $607.5m, to the joint venture.
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Those who claim it is cheaper to engage in derivatives over the counter than through a central clearing counterparty are not taking the cost of credit risk into account, according to a study by the European Energy Exchange.
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Xtrakter, the post trade reporting service, has gained the approval of the UK Financial Services Authority for regulatory reporting of exchange traded derivatives, using alternative instrument identifiers (AII).
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HKEx’s technically revamped automatic matching and execution management AMS/3 has become operational. Order processing capacity of AMS/3 has been doubled to 3,000 orders per second and the average end-to-end system response time halved to 0.15 seconds as a result of the upgrade. The upgraded trading system supports 21.6m orders and 7.5m trades in a standard four-hour trading day.
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Intercontinental exchange (ICE) has started using Logicscope TradeSTP for real-time post-trade processing.
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Jaypee International has been approved as a Category Five member of the London Metal Exchange, the bokerage announced on February 4.
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The Korea Exchange (KRX) has started to use Fidessa’s PowerBase NFS program. The NFS gateway provides high-speed market access for high-frequency and algorithmic traders. Fidessa claims that it reduces order processing time by 98% and increases throughput by 200%.
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The London Metal Exchange (LME) is looking for a new chairman after Donald Brydon handed in his notice in early February.
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The London Metal Exchange will open LME Asia, its first overseas office, in Singapore in April. The office will be headed by its commercial director Liz Milan.
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Kevin Milne has been appointed director of post-trade services at the London Stock Exchange Group.
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Cathryn Lyall has become director of BM&F Bovespa UK. Lyall will oversee the expansion of the London office, which will be its European hub. Before, she worked as an adviser for the exchange.
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N2eX, the power exchange venture run by Nasdaq OMX and Nord Pool, will launch futures “within six months”, according to Geir Reigstad, president of Nasdaq OMX Commodities.
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The Integrated Nano-Science and Commodity Exchange (INSCX), has appointed former senior Nasdaq developer Frank Racaneillo as honorary chairman and co-ordinator of US operations.
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The Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) has announced that Richard Mandl had been elected chairman of the board for 2010. He replaces James Neville.
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Mega Bolsa, the equity trading platform of Brazil’s BM&F Bovespa exchange, will use a new communication interface from April 20 for all its automatic direct market access connections.
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Nasdaq OMX Nordic, the group of stock exchanges in the Scandinavian and Baltic region, has switched to Inet, a trading system already used widely in the Nasdaq OMX group.
The change should reduce trading times to 250 microseconds.
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The UK arm of French brokerage Newedge has joined US power market Nodal Exchange, via its membership of LCH. Clearnet, Nodal Exchange was launched on April 8 last year, becoming the first exchange to offer locational futures contracts and related services to the US power market, with LCH.Clearnet as its central counterparty clearing house. Newedge becomes the seventh general clearing member to support trading on the exchange.
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Francis Lim, chief executive officer and president of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) stepped down on February 15 — two months earlier than scheduled.
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Antoine Shagoury has been appointed chief information officer at the London Stock Exchange — a new position, reporting to Xavier Rolet, the chief executive.
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Following the launch of Arrowhead in January the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has set up an office to “promote and improve” co-location services. This builds on the exchange’s efforts to develop co-location which started in May 2009.
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Neal Wolkoff, chief executive of ELX Futures, has written to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission asking it to force CME Group to accept US Treasury futures trades opened at ELX.
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Borse Dubai has taken up an option agreed with creditor banks a year ago and has been granted a one year extension on a $2.5bn syndicated loan, the state run holding company announced on January 21.
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CME Group has agreed a seven year licensing deal with the Chicago Board Options Exchange, under which CBOE will create new volatility indices for commodities traded at CME.
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London-based interdealer broker Icap has expanded its base metals business by hiring Paul Phillips. He joins from French bank Natixis. Before that he worked for LME broker Amalgamated Metals Trading.
Icap became a Category Two member of the London Metal Exchange in January 2009, offering broking in futures, forwards and options on all LME metals.
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February
2009 spelt retrenchment for the world’s established futures exchanges – but a commodities boom eased the pain. Tom Osborn picks out the bright spots from the laggards in the global recovery.
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As China prepares for the launch of equity index futures, the authorities are taking a careful approach to reform, argues Dean Owen, chief China representative at futures broker Newedge.
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The Bahrain Financial Exchange has appointed Salah Al Abdulla as its chief corporate officer ahead of its launch.
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Nicholas Bertrand started on January 1 as head of EDX London, the derivatives arm of the London Stock Exchange. His promotion followed the decision by Lee Betsill to leave the exchange.
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The board of the Chicago Board Options Exchange approved in mid-December a proposal to pursue demutualisation followed by an immediate initial public offering. The US equity options exchange hopes to complete the process by the end of the second quarter 2010.
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The Chicago Board Options Exchange will delay the launch of its new C2 options exchange platform until the second half of the year, until the US Securities and Exchange Commission has completed its review of flash trading.
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The battle in US Treasury futures trading between Chicago Mercantile Exchange and its start-up rival ELX Futures has intensified with the simultaneous launch of futures on ultra-long bonds (with maturities greater than 25 years) on both exchanges
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Two senior figures at Creditex, the interdealer broker and trading platform for credit default swaps that Intercontinental Exchange bought in September 2008, are to leave.
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The Futures and Options Association formed a new advocacy body in January, the FOA European Industry Council, to lobby regulators and politicians.
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The London Metal Exchange will merge its Mediterranean and Far Eastern Steel Billet Futures, to create what it calls the first global, physically delivered steel futures contract.
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The London Stock Exchange’s plans to launch a rival to Liffe’s futures and options on the FTSE 100 index have been cautiously welcomed by market participants.
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Kim Bongsoo took over as chairman and chief executive of the Korea Exchange on December 30, for a fixed three year term.
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Garry O’Connor has taken over from Chris Edmonds as chief executive of the International Derivatives Clearing Group, the new clearing service for interest rate swaps, majority-owned by the Nasdaq OMX Group.
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Claude Cyr, first vice-president and head of global services and relationships management at Newedge Canada, started on December 21 as senior vice-president of financial markets at the Montreal Exchange.
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Singapore Mercantile Exchange, the fledgling commodities bourse, received in-principle regulatory clearance from the Singaporean markets regulator in early December. It hopes to begin trading in the first quarter. The bourse, which completed go-live testing in October, had hoped to launch before the end of 2009
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US futures commission merchants will be able to use SunGard’s one-stop GMI platform to process and clear trades on BM&F Bovespa, the Brazilian stock and derivatives exchange, from the second quarter this year. The GMI system also helps with post-trade accounting.
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Nasdaq OMX is unlikely to be too concerned by losing its stake in Nasdaq Dubai, a senior exchange analyst has told FOW.
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The Hong Kong Exchange is working with index companies to develop a volatility index for its securities market. It will be based on stock index options prices, with the aim of providing a benchmark of volatility for the marketplace. The project is at an early stage, HKEx said.
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Nasdaq OMX has said it has finalised a deal to secure an 85% stake in the over-the-counter derivatives exchange Agora X.
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Deutsche Börse Group, operator of Eurex and International Securities Exchange, is bringing in US management consultancy McKinsey for large scale restructuring, a person familiar with the matter has told Futures and Options World.
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The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) is confident that its whole milk powder future will establish itself as a global benchmark because it is not US centric, unlike the rival CME Group contract.
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BM&FBovespa and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop a multi-asset class trading platform.
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With the launch of Singapore Exchange’s Fuel Oil Futures just days away, market participants have told Futures and Options Intelligence that the Asian bourse could succeed where two others have tried and failed.