ICE Futures U.S., the leading soft commodity exchange and a subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE), today announced that it will begin offering foreign exchange futures electronically on the ICE trading platform on November 9th 2007.
Listing of the foreign exchange futures contracts will occur in phases. In the initial phase, the following futures contracts will be offered electronically 22 hours a day on the ICE platform:
ICE Futures U.S. |
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|
Contract
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Contract Size
|
Symbol
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| British pound/Japanese yen | 125,000 British pounds | SY |
| British pound/Swiss franc | 125,000 British pounds | SS |
| British pound/US dollar | 62,500 British pounds | MP |
| Euro/British pound | 100,000 euros | GB |
| Euro/Japanese yen | 100,000 euros | EJ |
| Euro/Swiss franc | 100,000 euros | RZ |
| Euro/US dollar | 100,000 euros | EO |
| Swiss franc/Japanese yen | 200,000 Swiss francs | ZY |
| US dollar/Japanese yen | 100,000 US dollars | SN |
| US dollar/Swiss franc | 100,000 US dollars | MF |
These foreign exchange contracts will begin electronic trading on the ICE platform at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, November 8th for trade date November 9th. Electronic trading hours for currency futures are from 8:00 p.m. ET through 6:00 p.m. ET each trading day. These futures contracts also trade in the exchange’s floor-based markets in New York and Dublin, which operate from 2:00 a.m. ET through 3:00 p.m. ET. The US Dollar Index® futures contract (DX), a leading benchmark for the performance of the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies, began trading electronically in June. The electronic launch of additional currency contracts will be announced at a later date.
The products will be available in a test environment beginning Thursday, October 11th, to allow independent software vendors (ISVs), market data vendors, brokers, algorithmic traders and other registered market participants time to complete system connectivity and functionality testing.
"We’re pleased to expand our unique foreign exchange offering through the distribution and accessibility of the ICE platform," said Tom Farley, ICE Futures U.S. president and coo. "This is a first step toward unlocking the potential in our products and in serving our participants in the large and growing foreign exchange market."
ICE Futures U.S. successfully introduced side-by-side trading of its soft commodity contracts on February 2nd, 2007. Contracts offered include futures based on cocoa, coffee, cotton, orange juice and sugar. Today, approximately 80% of the exchange’s soft commodity futures contracts are traded electronically on the ICE platform.
