CME Group Announces the Launch of New Natural Gas Basis Options Contracts
July 20 2009 - 12:09PM
PR Newswire (US)
CHICAGO, July 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group, the world's
largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, today announced the
launch of trading and clearing services for 11 new financially
settled natural gas basis options contracts. Trading will be
available on the New York trading floor and clearing services will
be available through CME ClearPort , a set of flexible clearing
services open to over the counter (OTC) market participants to
significantly mitigate counterparty risk and provide capital
efficiencies across asset classes, beginning on August 2 for trade
date August 3. These contracts are listed by NYMEX, and are subject
to NYMEX rules and regulations. The new basis options contracts and
their commodity codes will be: -- Henry Hub (5E) -- Houston Ship
Channel (5F) -- SoCal (5M) -- Northwest Pipeline, Rockies (5I) --
Panhandle (5K) -- Michigan Consolidated Gas (4W) -- Texas Eastern
Zone M-3 (5N) -- Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. Appalachia (TCO)
(5D) -- Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGLP) TexOk (5H) --
Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGLP) Mid-Con (5G) -- Waha
(5O) These options will help natural gas producers and consumers to
more effectively hedge their exposure to natural gas price
fluctuations at regional delivery points outside of the Henry Hub.
The contract will be 2,500 mmBtus in size with a minimum price
fluctuation of $0.01 per barrel. There will be 10 strike prices in
increments of $0.01 per mmBtu above and below the "at-the-money"
strike price, for a total of 21 strike prices. The expiration date
will be the last business day of the underlying month of the
futures contract. The first listed month will be the August 2009
contract. The contracts will be listed for 48 consecutive months.
For more information please visit
http://www.cmegroup.com/clearport. CME Group
(http://www.cmegroup.com/) is the world's largest and most diverse
derivatives exchange. Building on the heritage of CME, CBOT and
NYMEX, CME Group serves the risk management needs of customers
around the globe. As an international marketplace, CME Group brings
buyers and sellers together on the CME Globex electronic trading
platform and on trading floors in Chicago and New York. By acting
as the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer, CME
Clearing virtually eliminates counterparty credit risk. CME
Clearing also offers financial safeguards to help mitigate systemic
risk, providing the security and confidence market participants
need to operate, invest and grow. CME Group offers the widest range
of benchmark products available across all major asset classes,
including futures and options based on interest rates, equity
indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities,
metals, and alternative investment products such as weather and
real estate. CME Group is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol "CME."
The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group,
Globex, E-mini and CME ClearPort are trademarks of Chicago
Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are
trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. NYMEX and
New York Mercantile Exchange are 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 and its products can be found
at http://www.cmegroup.com/. CME-G DATASOURCE: CME Group CONTACT:
Media, Anu Ahluwalia, +1-212-299-2439, or Allan Schoenberg,
+1-312-930-8189, , or Investors, John Peschier, +1-312-930-8491,
all of CME Group Web Site: http://www.cmegroup.com/
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