CME Group Announces CFTC Approval of Increased Daily Price Limits for CBOT Corn Futures and Options
CHICAGO, Aug. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced it had received CFTC approval of its proposal to increase daily price limits for Corn futures and options. As a result, effective trade date Monday, August 22, 2011, daily price limits for CBOT Corn futures, Corn options, and Mini-sized Corn futures will increase to $0.40 per bushel from the current $0.30 per bushel. These contracts are listed with, and subject to, the rules and regulations of the CBOT.
"In recent months, historically low levels of supply coupled with growing demand for corn and other macroeconomic factors have resulted in significantly increased corn futures prices and volatility," said David Lehman, Managing Director, Commodity Research and Product Development, CME Group. "After significant discussion with customers, representative trade groups and the CFTC, we believe increasing daily price limits will result in less-frequent limit moves and will help ensure that our markets provide the most effective means for price discovery and risk management markets."
The current price limit is $0.30 per bushel per day for Corn futures and option contracts, expandable to $0.45 and then to $0.70 when at least two contracts close at limit bid or limit offer on the previous trading day. This represents approximately only 4.4 percent of the current nearby futures price, which is historically low. As a result, during 2011-to-date alone, 70 contract months have settled at or beyond the initial price limit, compared to 36 contract months in all of 2010.
During a July 19 corn industry meeting, CME Group invited market participants to comment on its proposal and presented analysis on a number of factors surrounding corn price volatility, the need to increase daily price limits and factors used by CME Clearing to establish margins. At the same time, the exchange committed to continue to research and discuss with market participants alternative price limit mechanisms, including specifying price limits as a percentage of futures prices.
Beginning August 22, the initial price limit will increase to $0.40 per bushel per day expandable to $0.60 per bushel when at least two contracts close at limit bid or limit offer on the previous trading day.
As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago. CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets.
CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com.
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SOURCE CME Group
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