Relationship Based Trading: A Year in Review

  • 8 Apr 2019
  • By CME Group

What is RBT?

On January 8, 2018 CME Group extended Relationship Based Trading to agricultural markets.

RBT has brought new brokers, market makers and participants to the market by allowing market participants to have pre- execution discussions to facilitate trade execution. RBT includes:

Crosses:

An R-Cross is a crossing protocol allowed on CME Globex which gives brokers who engage in allowable pre-execution communications the ability to enter a two-sided order on CME Globex. Customers may benefit from improvements to the market in the central limit order book.

Blocks:

A Block Trade is a privately negotiated futures, options or combination transaction that is permitted to be executed apart from the central limit order book. Buyer and Seller are matched by a broker and the trade is submitted to CME ClearPort. Block trades must be reported within a short window after execution and are restricted to Eligible Contract Participants.

 

Total Volume

Block Volume

% Total Volume

Cross Volume

% Total Volume

Corn

123,423,537

447,436

0.36%

333,310

0.27%

Soybeans

78,160,193

135,113

0.17%

174,088

0.22%

Chicago Wheat

46,332,273

76,491

0.17%

267,546

0.58%

KC Wheat

16,327,750

27,272

0.17%

28,745

0.18%

Soybean Oil

32,834,016

36,648

0.11%

26,542

0.08%

Soybean Meal

35,155,113

27,402

0.08%

242,079

0.69%

Live Cattle

19,228,534

3,231

0.02%

5,422

0.03%

Lean Hog

16,423,908

10,308

0.06%

4,713

0.03%

Feeder Cattle

3,886,886

342

0.01%

1,294

0.03%

TOTAL

371,772,210

764,243

0.21%

1,083,738

0.29%

 

Total Trades

Block Trades

% Total Trades

Cross Trades

% Total Trades

Corn

31,002,131

602

0.002%

1,973

0.006%

Soybeans

29,981,213

232

0.001%

1,460

0.005%

Chicago Wheat

18,886,844

167

0.001%

1,648

0.009%

KC Wheat

7,898,000

71

0.001%

229

0.003%

Soybean Oil

14,475,237

95

0.001%

225

0.002%

Soybean Meal

17,595,496

77

0.000%

2,020

0.011%

Live Cattle

12,690,986

32

0.000%

260

0.002%

Lean Hog

10,476,135

32

0.000%

155

0.001%

Feeder Cattle

3,299,861

2

0.000%

78

0.002%

TOTAL

146,305,900

1,310

0.001%

8,045

0.005%

Trade Dates: 1/8/2018 – 1/8/2019

Source: CME Group

Source: CME Group

Source: CME Group

Note:

  • This chart shows the distribution of order sizes for Block trades by individual product.
  • The legs of a spread are summed to come up with the block size e.g. 500 CN-CZ would count as a block of 1,000.
  • The analysis looks at both futures and options contracts.

Source: CME Group

  • Crosses reached a record percent of overall volume at 2.6% of total volume in March 2019.
  • Block and Cross Options remain a relatively small percentage of overall volume.

Block Thresholds for CME Agricultural Products

 

Futures

Options

Commodity ETH RTH

Reporting Time

ETH RTH

Reporting Time

Corn

300

150

5 min

500

250

15 min

Soybeans

200

100

5 min

300

150

15 min

Chicago Wheat

200

100

5 min

300

150

15 min

KC Wheat

100

50

5 min

150

75

15 min

Soybean Oil

100

50

5 min

150

75

15 min

Soybean Meal

100

50

5 min

150

75

15 min

Live Cattle

50

50

5 min

100

100

15 min

Feeder Cattle

50

50

5 min

100

100

15 min

Lean Hogs

50

50

5 min

100

100

15 min

Aus Wheat

5

5

15 min

n/a

n/a

15 min

BS Wheat & Corn

5

5

15 min

n/a

n/a

15 min

Disclaimer

Neither futures trading nor swaps trading are suitable for all investors, and each involves the risk of loss. Swaps trading should only be undertaken by investors who are Eligible Contract Participants (ECPs) within the meaning of Section 1a(18) of the Commodity Exchange Act. Futures and swaps each are leveraged investments and, because only a percentage of a contract’s value is required to trade, it is possible to lose more than the amount of money deposited for either a futures or swaps position. Therefore, traders should only use funds that they can afford to lose without affecting their lifestyles and only a portion of those funds should be devoted to any one trade because traders cannot expect to profit on every trade. All references to options refer to options on futures.

Any research views expressed those of the individual author and do not necessarily represent the views of the CME Group or its affiliates. The information within this presentation has been compiled by CME Group     for general purposes only. CME Group assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. All examples are hypothetical situations, used for explanation purposes only, and should not be considered investment advice or the results of actual market experience.

All matters pertaining to rules and specifications herein are made subject to and are superseded by official rulebook of the organizations. Current rules should be consulted in all cases concerning contract specifications

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.

Copyright © 2019 CME Group. All rights reserved.

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