KCBT Offers Electronic Trading

The Kansas City Board of Trade will begin offering electronic trading of its futures and options contracts on Sunday, December 12 on the Chicago Board of Trade's (CBOT) e-cbot electronic trading platform powered by LIFFE CONNECT.

The KCBT wheat futures and options contracts will continue to be traded by open outcry during regular trading hours. The KCBT Hard Red Winter Wheat Futures contract will trade electronically from 7:32 p.m. CT to 6:00 a.m. Sunday through Friday. No Saturday evening session will be held.

The KCBT Hard Red Winter Wheat futures contract will continue to trade by open outcry from 9:30 a.m. CT to 1:15 p.m. CT Monday through Friday. The KCBT Hard Red Winter Wheat options contract will trade electronically from 7:34 p.m. CT to 6:00 a.m. CT. Sunday through Friday and will continue to trade by open outcry from 9:30 a.m. to 1:25 p.m. No Saturday evening session will be held.

With the onset of electronic trading, the KCBT Value Line stock index futures contract will only be offered for trading electronically, from 7:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. CT Sunday through Friday. The Value Line stock index options contract will also trade by electronic trading only, from 7:17 p.m. CT through 3:15 p.m. CT Sunday through Friday. No Saturday evening sessions will be held.

The KCBT will begin clearing processing services for the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WCE) with the onset of WCE electronic trading on December 20. "Mid-December will be ground-breaking at the KCBT as we begin offering electronic trading to complement open outcry trading in our highly liquid flagship products, the Hard Red Winter Wheat futures and options contracts, and convert the Value Line stock index futures and options contracts to electronic trading," says KCBT President and CEO Jeff Borchardt.

"In complementary fashion, we also will begin handling clearing processing services for the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange the following week. These initiatives, coupled with our record wheat futures volume pace, will solidify 2004 as a landmark year in the exchange's 148-year history," he says.