Client Management Advisory Notice
From | Systems Liaison
Subject | Russian Ruble Contract Changes
Effective Date | 08/18/00
Notice Number | CM#0008
In a letter dated Friday, July 28, 2000, the CFTC approved the CME�s proposed changes to the Russian Ruble contract. The contract changes call for 1) increasing the contract�s size from 500,000 (US $17,900) to 2,500,000 (US $89,500) Russian Rubles and 2) reducing the point value of the tick from $.000025 ($12.50) to $.00001 ($25.00) per Russian Ruble. The new contract specifications may become applicable for contract months that do not have open interest. Proposed Implementation Plan To enable the new contract specifications to become applicable as quickly as possible and to maintain the foreign exchange industry-recognized �RU� commodity code for CME Russian Ruble contracts going into the future, the CME intends to: Delist all CME Russian Ruble contract months listed under the old contract specifications that do not have open interest: includes all options contract months traded during Regular Trading Hours (�RTH�) (e.g., September 2000, December 2000, March 2001, June 2001), and GLOBEX2 Trading Hours (e.g., September 2000, December 2000); and all futures contract months traded during RTH (e.g., March 2001 and June 2001) and all futures contract months traded on GLOBEX (September 2000, December 2000, March 2001, June 2001 outrights and the three calendar spreads of December 2000 vs. September 2000, March 2001 vs. September 2000, June 2001 vs. September 2000). These delistings will occur on or before Monday, August 14, 2000. If open interest liquidates in the currently listed December 2000 CME Russian Ruble futures contract month (under the old contract specifications), the Exchange will delist this contract month until such time that it can be relisted under the new contract specifications. (A delisting of the currently listed September 2000 contract month is not proposed in the event open interest liquidates prior to the contract�s termination on Friday, September 15th. A relisting of a new September 2000 contract month under the new contract specifications would only be for a ten-day period, and is believed unnecessary.) Convert the existing September 2000 and December 2000 futures contracts with open interest to a new �temporary� commodity code (�R2�) on Monday, August 28th for RTH trading. If December 2000 open interest (under the old contract terms) is liquidated and hence delisted, the Exchange may still have to convert the December 2000 contract to the new �temporary� commodity code (�R2�), since there is price and trading history which the Exchange, quote vendors, and service bureaus will have to accommodate. Launch the new Russian Ruble futures and options contracts under the �reused� commodity code of �RU� on Sunday, September 3rd for GLOBEX trading and Tuesday, September 5th for RTH trading. At this time, the CME will resume the current Russian Ruble futures and options listing schedules for both RTH and GLOBEX. (There will be a one-week �gap� between the conversion of the existing contracts to the new �temporary� commodity code of �R2� before reusing the �RU� code for the new contract month listings.) The Exchange will not list a new contract month, if an old contract month is still listed. For example, a new December 2000 contract month will be listed only if the old December 2000 contract month liquidates and is delisted. If the old December 2000 contract month is not delisted, then the first newly listed contract month under the new contract specifications will be March 2001. Proposed implementation of the conversion of old CME Russian Ruble futures contract months to the new commodity code (�R2�) is Monday, August 28, 2000. Proposed implementation of relisting contract months under the new contract specifications with the reused �RU� commodity code will be Sunday, September 3, 2000. Please contact Lisa Amato, Systems Liaison, at (312) 338-2654, if you have any questions regarding this notice. Thank you.