CME Group Inc., the biggest U.S. operator of futures exchanges, will offer contracts tied to anticipated price swings in gold and oil starting in the fourth quarter, the exchange said on Tuesday.
Futures that track expected volatility in soybeans and corn will be available for trading starting in the first quarter of 2011, the company said in a statement.
The new contracts are the product of a licensing agreement struck earlier this year with CBOE Holdings Inc., home to Wall Street’s favorite of investor sentiment, the CBOE Volatility Index .VIX.
CME is betting its own volatility futures will mimic the success of the VIX contracts, which now rank among the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s most popular contracts.
CBOE will calculate volatility indexes for the commodities using options contracts traded at CME Group, applying the same method it uses to create the VIX index from options on Standard & Poor’s 500 Index options, CBOE said on Monday.
CME Group operates the New York Mercantile Exchange, home to oil futures and options; the Comex, where gold is traded, and the Chicago Board of Trade, home to contracts tied to soybeans and corn.
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CBOE Holdings
CBOE Holdings Inc. claims it is the largest option exchange in the United States. The company, in addition to its core options trading business, provides marketplaces for trading futures contracts...
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