I guess that farm broadcasters needing some more program material have got it now. Mini Futures.
The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) announced today that it will launch mini-sized CBOT Ag futures contracts on its e-cbot electronic trading platform. This is the first time these contracts will be available on an electronic platform and they will include mini-sized Corn, mini-sized Soybeans and mini-sized Wheat contracts.
The mini-sized Ag contracts are 1/5 the size of their full-sized counterparts, or 1,000 bushels. They will trade on the CBOT electronic trading platform on the overnight hours beginning at 6:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., Sunday through Friday. In addition, these products will continue to trade in the open auction market from 9:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.
The contracts are scheduled to launch mid-second quarter 2007. CBOT mini-sized Ag contracts are designed to provide market participants with enhanced trading opportunities, offer global customers, particularly in Asia, a smaller contract that is sized to their needs. In addition, these products will utilize CBOT’s innovative process for directed fungibility allowing market participants the opportunity to offset mini-sized contracts against full-sized contracts as they near expiration. These mini-sized contracts will benefit from the arbitrage opportunities with the full-sized contracts, and the increasing liquidity during the European and Asian trading day.