Nybot financial futures to launch electronically in April

The New York Board of Trade’s (Nybot) financial futures contracts will be rolled out electronically during April, according to its parent company, the Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange (Ice).

Futures on Nybot’s US dollar index, foreign exchange and other equity and commodity indexes will be rolled out after a trial period beginning on March 16. The exact launch date in April will be finalised soon.

Bringing Nybot’s financial futures contracts onto Ice’s electronic platform will put them into direct competition with other electronic markets, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Globex and the New York-based International Securities Exchange.

The announcement follows the start of electronic trading of Nybot’s major soft commodity contracts on February 2. Since then, around 30% of daily volume in these contracts has been traded electronically. The sugar, cotton, coffee, cocoa and frozen concentrated orange juice contracts were scheduled to come online from January 19, but were delayed.

See also: Ice expects to launch Nybot commodities by end of month