Nymex joins electronic revolution
>By Kevin Morrison
>Published: February 6 2006 19:10 | Last updated: February 6 2006 19:10
>>
The New York Mercantile Exchange has always done business its own way. Over the past two years it has pursued a global strategy of opening up satellite energy futures trading floors as the worldâs other futures markets were going increasingly electronic.
Now, Nymex appears ready to accept that electronic trading is the future. Any day, it is expected to announce formally that it will introduce electronic trading alongside its pit trading this spring.
Nymex shareholders say that the move mirrors that of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, which have both introduced electronic trading side by side with their pit trading. The CME introduced electronic trading in 1990 and the CBOT in 2000, and it now accounts for about 70 per cent of business on both exchanges.
Although Nymex insiders claim that the issue has been debated for some time at boardroom meetings, the admission last week by Nymex shareholders that the exchange intended to introduce parallel trading follows a week in which competitors increasingly encroached on its turf. Its closest rival, the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), the Atlanta online commodities exchange, last Friday launched an electronic version of West Texas Intermediate, the worldâs most prominent oil futures contract and the flagship contract for Nymex.
âThis was not prompted by ICE, but it has been under discussion for months,â said one Nymex shareholder. âIn fact the pressure came from the floor, where many of the floor community thought that it was a good idea to have the two together as it may create more liquidity.â
The launch has also stirred up a debate about regulation of the WTI contract, which is the worldâs most popular reference price for oil. ICE launched its new contract through its UK arm, ICE Futures, formerly the International Petroleum Exchange, which is regulated by the UKâs Financial Services Authority.
Nymex shareholders say that this gives ICE an unfair advantage because the FSA does not place an upper limits on investorsâ holdings of energy contracts, whereas the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has imposed limits. Nymex has threatened to move its electronic trading business to London in order to compete with ICE under the same regulations.
âMoving the [electronic trading] business offshore is a real issue and something the board is looking at very closely,â said the shareholder. âHowever, we donât want to get into a row with the CFTC because that will not be good for business.â James Newsome, Nymex president, was formerly the CFTC chairman. Nymex has a trading floor in London, which was opened last year after ICE closed its London oil futures trading pits where its premier contract Brent crude was traded.
However, Nymexâs Brent volumes have been poor because many former London-based floor traders have migrated their oil trading activities to the screen.
On its first day, ICEâs new product traded more than 38,000 contracts, or about 10 per cent of Nymexâs daily volume for its WTI contract. The launch came three days after Craig Donohue, CME chief executive officer, said the exchange was finalising its energy markets strategy.
âWe believe there is a lot of growth opportunity in the energy market, particularly related to electronic trading,â said Mr Donohue.
CME and Nymex fell out last month when talks about the CME buying a 10 per cent stake in its rival broke down.
A non-compete clause between the two ends on June 6, leaving the CME free to pursue its energy strategy. âThey [CME] are very serious. They see energy as the missing piece in their suite of products,â said one industry consultant.
The increased competition for Nymex comes when shareholders of the exchange, which is 134 years old, are considering the sale of 10 per cent of the exchange to private equity group General Atlantic for $170m.
Shareholders have yet to vote on the proposed partial sale to General Atlantic, which increased its original offer by $35m.
âNymex has a lot of issues up in the air â the threat of CME coming in, ICE launching WTI and the General Atlantic deal. It is sending them into panic mode,â the industry consultant said.
Additional Reporting by Doug Cameron