Eurex US, the fully electronic futures market launched last year in Chicago by the Swiss-German derivatives exchange, is to open two hours earlier in a bid to capture more business in the Asia Pacific region.
The exchange says it will lengthen its trading day to 23 hours as of April 2005. Trading will begin at 5pm Chicago time instead of 7pm and the trading day will continue to end at 4pm the next calendar day.
Satish Nandapurkar, CEO of Eurex US, says: "Global financial firms are structured for around the clock trading and with this change, Eurex US will meet their needs by offering trading during the core business hours of all time zones."
Eurex US claims the extended opening hours would make it the only exchange to offer trading in futures on US Treasury products during the full Asia-Pacific morning.
The initiative offers another example of how electronic exchanges are looking to grow liquidity and compete across time zones in a 24-hour global market.
This week the New York Stock Exchange (Nyse) said it was also considering extending its trading day in a bid to attract more business from Europe. Nyse chief executive John Thain told reporters at Davos that the exchange is in talks with members over extending opening hours, but has not yet decided on how much extra time might be added.
Electronic stock exchange Archipelago announced plans last November to open trading earlier to align with European trading hours.