The electrification of the New York Board of Trad(NYBOT) by its new owners, the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), continues. The ICE announced it would begin trading certain index futures contracts — including U.S. dollar index futures (DX) — electronically beginning June 15. Russell 1000 futures stock index futures, both full-sized and mini, will also trade electronically on the ICE platform. Electronic trading hours will begin at 8 p.m. ET and end at 4:15 p.m., allowing these futures to trade side-by-side with their pit-traded counterparts.

The electronic trading has been in beta mode since March 16, with brokers, software and data vendors, and algorithmic traders testing the system. Tom Farley, president and COO of the NYBOT, says there has been strong interest in trading the dollar index and the Russell 1000 futures electronically, and the exchange expects to increase the number of financial products available electronically over the next few months. NYBOT soft commodity futures — cocoa, coffee, cotton, orange juice, and sugar — began trading side-by-side in early February. About 60 percent of the NYBOT’s soft contracts trade electronically.

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