CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, announced today the launch of calendar spread options for corn, wheat, soybeans, soybean meal and soybean oil futures, scheduled to be available for trading on June 1. These contracts are listed with, and subject to, the rules and regulations of the Chicago Board of Trade.
Options on calendar spreads will enable customers to mitigate the risk of changing price differentials between successive futures contract months when rolling from one futures contract month to another. These new products will also provide grain merchandisers and processors with an additional tool to manage risks related to grain storage and purchase requirements.
"Feedback from customers and the agribusiness industry is that they would like another tool to manage price risk on the price spread among the three nearby contract months as well as the differential of the old crop and new crop months," said Barry Goldblatt, CME Group Managing Director of Commodity, Energy and Metals Products.
The calendar spread options will be available on CME Globex® and on the trading floors in the corn, wheat, soybean, soybean meal, and soybean oil options pits. Trading hours will be the same as for options on grain futures: on CME Globex from 6:00 p.m. - 6:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. Central time, Sunday through Friday, and on the trading floors 9:30 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. weekdays. The contracts will feature European style exercise into the two respective futures contracts at expiration.