On May 1st the CME will start conducting tests on the GLOBEX six digit trade id expansion project. (See background information below for more details). These tests will be performed with the service/software bureaus (Rolfe & Nolan, Sungard, WTD, ATIS) and the member firms that develop their own in-house back office software. Those service bureaus and firms met with CME staff earlier this year on Jan 25, 2001 and discussed this issue. We agreed to expand the GLOBEX trade ID from the current 5 digit format to a 6 digit format to accommodate the increasing GLOBEX trade volume. We further decided to start testing on May 1, 2001, with a target implementation date of June 1,2001.

If you are a member firm that uses a service bureau software for back office processing, please check with your service bureau to ensure that your firm is ready for implementation on June 1,2001. As for the firms that use their own in-house back office software, one of your representative staff, should have been contacted by the CME for the scheduled testing and implementation.

Background:

In the CME trade management system, trades are assigned a unique 5-digit trade id within a range from 1-99,999. The trade id range is assigned based on certain groups of transaction types. Currently GLOBEX and GLOBEX GUS trades id ranges are between 70,000 and 96,999. This range limits firms to only 27,000 records per day. Due to the increasing volume of trading on GLOBEX, some firms daily GLOBEX trading exceeds the 27,000 trades ids that are available to firms. As a result, the CME must apply a systematic change on a daily basis, assigning "unassigned" trade ids from other transaction group trade id ranges to those transactions that exceed the GLOBEX trade range limit. Although we have automated this process, it is not a viable long-term solution.

Proposed Solution:

As we anticipate that the volume of trading on GLOBEX will continue to dramatically increase in the near future, we are proposing that we expand the assignment of trade ids to GLOBEX from 5 digit to a 6 digit format. The GLOBEX trade id range will expand from its current 70,000 - 99,999 to a higher range of 100,000 - 999,999 trade ids per day. This expansion will require that firms and service bureaus increase GLOBEX trade id field from 5 digits to 6 digits field.

If you have any questions, please contact Mahmoud Ajamia at (312) 634 1595