Commodities

• The Kansas City Board of Trade has filed a submission with the CFTC to eliminate early opening outcry trading for its red winter wheat futures and options contracts on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report release dates, effective Jan. 1. Trading will now open at 9:30 a.m. CST on those days, following a USDA announcement that it will release statistical reports at 11:00 a.m. CST.

• The European Energy Exchange (EEX) plans to launch trading of wind, hydroelectric and solar power products in the first quarter of 2013.

Options

• The CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) plans to launch its S&P 500 Variance futures later this quarter. Similar to over-the-counter (OTC) variance swaps, the contract will allow users to trade the difference between the implied and realized variance of the S&P 500 Index. The CFE also plans to introduce a Lead Market Maker Program for the futures.

• The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced that its Investor Education Day will be held Sept. 29 in San Francisco. The event includes an Options Basics track, which focuses on fundamentals, and an Advanced Strategies course that teaches more complex concepts such as butterflies, condors and the Greeks.

• The BOX Options Exchange, an all-electronic equity options market, was added to the TMX Atrium community. After connecting to TMX Atrium’s platform, BOX clients will be able to access multiple liquidity centers and trade a range of asset classes using a single connectivity infrastructure.
• The CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) announced plans to expand trading hours for VIX futures from eight hours to nearly 24, beginning in 2013. CFE also hopes to establish a London hub next year.

Financials

• SwapClear, the interest rate swap clearing service from LCH.Clearnet, launched the industry’s first certification program for consultancy firms preparing market participants for the implementation of centralized OTC clearing.

• CME Group announced the launch of Chinese Steel Rebar HRB400 (Mysteel) Swap Futures, which will begin trading on Oct. 15. In January, CME Group partnered with Mysteel, China’s leading provider of ferrous price and indexing services, to develop risk management products for the ferrous industry; this will be the first product listed by a CME Group exchange based in Mysteel’s price data services.

• The CME Group will launch its deliverable interest rate swap futures contracts on Nov. 13. The contracts, which will be listed on the Chicago Board of Trade, is intended to complement CME’s interest rate futures and options business and its cleared OTC interest rate swap solution.
• Newedge announced that it has received approval for membership to clear OTC interest rate swaps at the CME. It is the first FCM and non-traditional OTC IRS swap dealer to offer central counterparty clearing of OTC interest rate derivatives.
• NYSE Liffe U.S. launched three new global equity index futures on Sept. 10. The contracts, mini MSCI Canada, mini MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America and mini MSCI World futures, will give customers more flexibility and exposure to global markets.

Forex

• CME Group is expected to offer 30 forex futures products, including currency pairs involving the USD, EUR and CNY when it launches its European bourse next year.
• Berkeley Futures Limited has been approved as a broker clearing member of the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange, adding to the exchange’s international membership base.
• Newedge announced the launch of a new Foreign Exchange Prime Brokerage platform designed to provide institutional clients with increased access to the global currency market. The new platform includes expanded connectivity and an updated infrastructure for trade processing.
• FTSE and Curex Group announced that the FTSE Curex FX Index Series will expand to include seven new streaming benchmark currency pairs, enabling investors to trade offshore Renminbi against seven major currencies at an independently calculated benchmark rate.

• Barclays Stockbrokers has partnered with FXCM Inc. to launch Barclays Margin FX, a new retail forex trading offering available in the United Kingdom.

 Technology

• Realtime Systems Group has expanded its operations in Asia using Equinix’s Hong Kong International Business Exchange data center. The data center will serve as RTS’ third gateway to and from trading communities in the Asia-Pacific region.
• The Singapore Exchange (SGX) and FIA Technology Services Inc. have collaborated to implement the Electronic Give-Up Automated Invoicing System (eGAINS). The new system is designed to provide system-wide efficiency in the billing and payment process related to give-up transactions, allowing daily automated electronic handling among SGX clearing members.

• The NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. announced that SBI Japannext has launched a new NASDAQ OMX-powered X-stream INET trading system. The Japanese proprietary trading system will benefit from ultra-low latency and throughput capacity advantages following the upgrade.

Regulation

• The CFTC approved ICE Clear Europe’s request to allow the clearing house and its members to hold U.S. energy futures and foreign energy futures in the 4d(a) account for U.S. customers. The agency’s decision will allow ICE to continue offering portfolio margining offsets for its energy clients, with enhanced account segregation benefits.

• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) certified the Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Ltd.’s (SGX) MSCI Indonesia Index futures contract for sale to U.S. persons. The contract will now be available for trading through SGX’s direct access terminals in the U.S.