Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group has announced two commodity market changes, both subject to regulatory approval.
-
24/7 trading for its existing 1 Ounce Gold futures contract, which is expected to begin on July 26.
-
A new 10 Barrel WTI Crude Oil futures contract, scheduled to launch on August 30.
If you follow commodity markets, CME is introducing a new 10 Barrel WTI Crude Oil futures contract. The benchmark WTI contract is 1,000 barrels and the existing Micro WTI contract is 100 barrels. This new contract will be one tenth the size of Micro WTI.
CME is also moving its 1 Ounce Gold futures contract to 24/7 trading. The idea is simple: gold and crude oil often react to geopolitical events, economic data, and policy decisions that can happen at any time, not only during market hours.
Indian exchanges have already moved toward smaller contract sizes in many segments. With global exchanges now experimenting with longer trading hours, it’ll be interesting to see whether a similar conversation emerges in India as well.