Notice to Members
Notice No. 210
07/03/2001
BRENT LAUNCH DATE; TRADING HOURS; PERMIT PROGRAM
The board of directors of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., last night voted to introduce the Brent crude oil futures contract for trading on Wednesday, September 5, and also approved trading hours and the framework for a permit program.

The contract will be traded via open outcry from 9 AM to 3:10 PM, Mondays through Fridays, and electronically after-hours on NYMEX ACCESS® with the times to be announced shortly.

The board agreed to offer up to 28 permits for individuals to trade Brent on behalf of brokerage firms and as many as another 28 for individuals trading on behalf of locals (Exchange members who trade for their own account.

The contract will begin with November 2001 as the first listed month.

Other contract specifications which were previously approved include:

Trading Unit:
1,000 barrels

Settlement:
Financial

Price Quotation:
U.S. dollars and cents per barrel

Minimum Price Fluctuation:
One cent per barrel

Expiration:
The business day prior to the 15th day of the month

Position Accountability Levels:
Net all-month and net any-one-month levels of 20,000 contracts

Further information on the parameters of the permit program will become available over the next few weeks.

Forward Looking and Cautionary Statements
The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., has attempted, wherever possible, to make statements in good faith , as of the date of this release, by using words such as anticipate, believes, expects, and words and terms of similar substance in connection with any discussion of its present and future operations within the industry. Any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of the Exchange, involve a number of risks, trends, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual results to differ materially, including; the Exchange's receipt of the necessary Commodity Futures Trading Commission approval; timely performance and cooperative effort of exchange partners; and changes in financial or business conditions at the Exchange.
Should you have any questions or require any further information, please contact exchangeinfo@nymex.com