March 23, 2006

Welcome to the CME Globex Notices summary for the week of March 23, 2006.

Changes This Week

• CME Canadian Dollar Options Strikes
• Reminder: New Options Spreads for CME Eurodollars
• Reminder: Contra-Party Subscriber ID Change

Upcoming Changes

• Reminder: Variable Tick Threshold Change for CME Equity Options
• Reminder: CME Equity Tick Size Changes
• Reminder: CME Market Data API Elimination
• CME FirmSoft Administration Interface

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your CME Globex Account Manager at 312.634.8700; or at +44.207.623.2550 in Europe.

CME Canadian Dollar Options Strikes 
Effective this Sunday, March 26, 2006 (for trade date Monday, March 27), at customer requests, additional strikes are scheduled to be launched for options on CME Canadian dollar futures on the CME Globex platform. CME will list put and call options at the regular exercise price nearest the underlying futures' previous day's settlement price and the next six higher and lower regular exercise prices. Currently, CME lists put and call options at the regular exercise price nearest the underlying futures' previous day's settlement price and the next three higher and lower regular exercise prices.

There will be no change in strike listings for CME Canadian dollar options traded on the floor.

Reminder: New Options Spreads for CME Eurodollars 
Effective this Sunday, March 26, 2006 (for trade date March 27), to further enhance the depth and liquidity of the electronic CME Eurodollar markets, CME is launching seven new options spreads on CME Eurodollar Weekly One-Year Mid-Curves:

• Ratio Call and Put Spread
• Horizontal Straddle Spread
• Call and Put Horizontal Spread
• Call and Put Tree Spread
• Call and Put Butterfly Spread
• Call and Put Condor Spread
• Risk Reversal Spread

Also on March 26, CME is launching multi-strike functionality on CME Eurodollar options Conditional Curves.

These spreads are currently available for testing in the CME certification environment.

More information on these CME Eurodollars options spreads launch is available online.

Reminder: Contra-Party Subscriber ID Change 
Effective this Sunday, March 26 (for trade date Monday, March 27), CME is modifying FIX tag 375, the contra-party Subscriber ID, in CME Globex execution messages.

Currently, FIX tag 375 is disseminated in CME Globex execution messages with the six-character clearing firm identifier followed by the two-character CME iLink identifier (e.g. 'CME187M1'). To improve the anonymity of the CME markets, CME is replacing the two-character CME iLink identifier with two blanks (e.g. 'CME187 '). The clearing firm will still be identified in the first six characters of tag 375.

Please note: this change only applies to CME Globex execution messages.

This change to the CME Globex execution messages is currently available for testing in the CME certification environment.

More information on this change is available online.

Reminder: Variable Tick Threshold Change for CME Equity Options 
Effective Sunday, April 2, 2006 (trade date April 3), to better support spread trading, CME is increasing the variable tick threshold from 3.00 to 5.00 index points for the following options on futures and option spreads:

• CME E-Mini S&P 500^®
• CME S&P 500
• CME S&P 500/Citigroup Growth
• CME S&P 500/Citigroup Value

This change is currently available for testing in the CME certification environment, via the 8A (equivalent to the CME E-mini S&P 500 options) and 8B (equivalent to the CME S&P 500, CME S&P 500/Citigroup Growth and CME S&P 500/Citigroup Value options).

More information on this CME Equity variable tick threshold change is available online.

Reminder: CME Equity Tick Size Changes 
Effective Sunday, April 2, 2006 (trade date April 3), in response to customer requests, CME is reducing the minimum tick size from 0.50 to 0.25 index points for the CME NASDAQ-100^® and CME E-mini NASDAQ-100 futures.

More information on this change is available online.

Reminder: CME Market Data API Elimination 
As previously announced, CME is eliminating CME Market Data API (MD API), the legacy market data vehicle, on July 1, 2006. All CME MD API customers must complete the migration to the CME Market Data Platform before July 1.

More information on the CME MD API cut-off and the CME Market Data Platform is available online.

CME FirmSoft Administration Interface 
To provide greater control and flexibility over CME FirmSoft access rights to CME Clearing Firms, CME is introducing the CME FirmSoft Administration interface. Through this browser-based interface on the secure CME portal site, authorized CME Clearing Firm administrators will have the ability to directly add, modify and delete CME FirmSoft access rights for their employees and customers.

More information on the CME FirmSoft Administration Interface is available online.