CME Group FX products set monthly and quarterly records as June ended, with a new daily record in notional value of $168.4 billion established on June 10, 2008, and average daily notional value for the month of $107 billion. Quarterly average daily notional value was $93.8 billion.

June 10 also marked the second-highest volume day ever for CME Group FX, with 1,264,086 futures and options contracts traded. That volume number was surpassed only on December 8, 2006, when 1,268,883 contracts were traded.

June 2008 volume of 763,700 contracts per day surpassed June 2007 by 14 percent. Volume for the second quarter of 2008 was a record 665,143 contracts, which exceeded last year’s Q2 volume by 26 percent, and first quarter 2008 by 4 percent.

The CME Globex electronic FX trading platform recently received honors from two of the leading FX publications:

FX Week’s e-FX Award for Best Professional e-Trading Venue CME Group was honored recently by FX Week for the Best Professional e-Trading Venue. FX Week awards this to the best venue for counterparties to trade foreign exchange. CME Group was recognized by the selection committee for our commitment to developing and opening up the global FX options market through our March launch of volatility-quoted FX options and auto-exercise functionality. The judges also commended the recent enhancements that were made to CME Globex that cut response times for FX transactions by 50 percent.

Profit & Loss Digital Markets Award for Best Multi-Asset Class Platform CME Group was also honored by Profit & Loss Magazine for having the Best Multi-Asset Class Platform as part of the inaugural Digital Markets Awards. This award, which is voted on by the magazine's editorial board and subscribers, is a testament to CME Globex’s reputation as the benchmark for electronic trading in our industry and our ability to offer our customers the widest range of asset classes available on a single trading platform.

Trading FX options on CME Globex offers the flexibility, speed, access, liquidity and security needed to get the highest possible return from your trading. Month after month, this electronic platform and liquidity continue to grow. In June 2008 our total average daily notional value for FX options was $3.6 billion with 22,465 contracts traded, compared to $2.0 billion June 2007, when 15,168 contracts traded. Additionally, this past March marked a record month of over $4.8 billion in daily FX options liquidity.

In the first quarter of this year OTC quoting methodology became available on CME Globex when we launched Volatility-Based Quoting. This methodology is now offered on six of our FX options contracts – Euro FX, Canadian Dollar, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen and Australian Dollar.

To learn more about our Volatility-Based Quoting, visit www.cmegroup.com/fxvoloptions
To learn more about FX Options and to see this growing liquidity in action, visit     www.cmegroup.com/efxoptions

CME Group released results from a new global study that reveals market participants' growing focus on electronic trading, risk management and cost control is driving the record growth in global foreign exchange (FX) markets. The Global FX Market Study, sponsored by CME Group and undertaken by ClientKnowledge, a leading wholesale financial services research and consulting firm, provides fresh insights into several trends that are reshaping the $3.2 trillion a day global FX market.

Key Findings:

While it is well established that traditional telephone and voice-based trading continues to give way to electronic trading, the study revealed the following:
• Traders expect electronic trading growth to gain momentum faster than previously anticipated. CME Group's Global FX Market Study predicted an average of more than 80 percent of all cash business will be executed electronically in 2010 (banks 89 percent, traditional money managers 83 percent and non-traditional money managers 96 percent).
• Although latency is a hot topic with electronic traders, 72 percent of bank survey participants cited counterparty risk as their biggest concern, followed by settlement risk (64 percent), giving a clear advantage to the exchange-style centrally cleared model, which lessens both of these risks. Latency was of concern to only 19 percent of participants who responded to this question.

Traders of all categories also continue to focus on efficient execution. The study showed the following:
• 79 percent of active and 81 percent of real-money traders were concerned primarily with bid/offer spreads as the key component of their transaction costs.
• Market impact (price movement during trade execution that negatively impacts the market price) concerned 59 percent of active and 64 percent of less active traders (although the width and depth of the market and its effects on the spread are difficult to separate).
• Settlement costs (including exchange fees concerned 49 percent of active and 48 percent of less active trades, while, in line with the relatively low number of algorithmic traders, reported fills relative to benchmark prices concerned a mere 23 percent of active and 15 percent of real-money traders.

Additional information:
Read more about the Key Findings
Learn more about ClientKnowledge
Download the Global FX Survey Market Report (PDF)
View the e-FX Industry Report: From Hedging to Alpha: e-FX gains even greater momentum

Increased Spot Month Limits for the Mexican Peso Contracts

Recently CME Group approved rule changes to increase the spot month position limit for Mexican Peso futures and options contracts from 10,000 to 20,000 contracts, and further, is making the rule amendments effective two business days later to assure market participants the ability to reduce speculative positions in the expiring contract during the period of peak liquidity. The revised rules indicate the new spot month position limit is applicable on and after the third business day prior to the termination of trading of the futures contract. The position accountability threshold of 6,000 contracts for Mexican Peso futures and options would be in effect until that point. These changes will enable customers to roll from one contract month to the next contract month during the most liquid portions of the traditional roll period.

Take a look at our new online education opportunities for FX market participants at academy.cmegroup.com. All classes are free of charge, and require only that you register.

These courses:
• Are Web-based, which makes it easy to access them from virtually anywhere in the world
• Have a modular format, which allows you to learn at your own pace and focus on the topics most   important to you
• Include market dynamics, market operations, FX futures, technical analysis, fundamental analysis,   behavioral finance/trading psychology
• Feature videos, online lectures and strategy/white papers from traders, market experts and academics
  from around the world

Click here to see more at academy.cmegroup.com

In August CME Group will launch a new application programming interface (API) that will provide a new and more efficient means to report privately-negotiated trades and get them submitted to CME Clearing. The goal is to make processing easier and more straight-through for traders, brokers and clearing firms.

This new application is called CME Clearing360 Trade Reporter and will be accessible through CME EOS Trader, which is one of the applications using the API. Using the web-based Trade Reporter application a trader can report a block trade for any block eligible FX product or FX EFP.

The Clearing360 system and Trade Reporter will:
• Price all the legs of the strategy
• Verify that the trade conforms with minimum quantity rules
• Eliminate the need for a phone call to the Globex Control Center (GCC)
• Submit the trade to clearing
• Cause the trade automatically to be loaded to the two clearing firms, once the trade has either passed
   a credit check on both sides, or been explicitly accepted

Bottom line: your trading will be more efficient:
• No need for a call to the GCC to report the trade
• No need for the clearing firm to submit the trade; trade details will automatically flow from the clearing
   system to the clearing firm.

Additionally, as of September 1, 2008 CME will reduce the block trading fees for eligible long-dated
FX products.

The new ex-pit fee will be a $0.10 premium over the existing (account-based) transaction fees for the product traded electronically. For example, the current CME GLOBEX fee for a member executing a Euro FX Option contract is $0.25 per side. The new ex-pit fee for a member would be $0.35 for any Block trade, with a tenor equal to or beyond the fourth quarterly contract, down from $1.75

For more information, please contact:
In the US: Craig LeVeille (312.454.5301)
In Europe: Will Patrick (+44 207 796 7122)

CME Group offers two risk management services, Drop Copy and Cancel on Disconnect, designed to protect CME Globex customers and clearing firms. We also offer two order management tools, FirmSoft and TeleSTAT, to assist your trading on the CME Globex platform. Together, these tools and services guard our customers against costly trading and technological errors.

Risk Management Services. Upon an involuntarily dropped CME Globex-to-iLink user connection, Cancel On Disconnect (COD) cancels all resting session/day futures and options orders for that user. COD is a free, opt-in, subscription-based service.
More information is available online at www.cmegroup.com/cod

Drop Copy service allows customers to receive real-time copies of CME Globex execution report and reject messages as they are sent over iLink sessions, allowing customers and clearing firms to monitor orders and activity in real time. Drop Copy service will be available to all directly connected customers for free through Q2 2009. A monthly fee, designed to cover the cost of providing this service, will be charged starting in Q3.
More information is available at www.cmegroup.com/dropcopy

Order Management Tools. FirmSoft is a browser-based order management tool that provides real-time visibility and cancel functionality into orders, across multiple firm IDs, in the CME Globex order management database. FirmSoft provides important alternative access to working and filled orders during system failures and is accessible through the CME Group portal (via the Internet).
More information is available at www.cmegroup.com/firmsoft

TeleSTAT is an automated system that enables individual traders to cancel and status CME Globex orders over the phone. After entering a unique ID and PIN, users quickly navigate through the menu prompts to expedite their requests. TeleSTAT features include cancel all orders, status working orders and net position information.
Find out more about TeleSTAT online at www.cmegroup.com/telestat