CME Launches Hand Held Units for Locals in British Pound Pit

[I4Lothian@xxxxxxx]

According to some CME sources, 18 British Pound locals were given Hand Held 
Units (HHU) today which allows them to lay off risk and trade with Globex 
Foreign Exchange.  

Globex Foreign Exchange (GFX) is a CME owned corporation that tries to make a 
market and tighten up the spreads between Globex currencies and the Interbank 
currency markets.  The GPX is supposed to be a break-even operation.

Before the HHUs, locals would have to leave the pit and make a telephone call 
in order to make a trade in the cash market.  Now, they can use the HHU and 
make a trade in cash with GFX without leaving the pit.

So far today 300 contracts have traded via the HHUs.

Word is that near the end of June HHUs will be going into the Eurodollar pit. 
 This will allow locals to trade directly with the Globex side by side 
Eurodollar market.  
By comparison, bonds at the CBOT trade side by side with Project A, but there 
is no HHU at the CBOT and no direct link to the closed Project A system.

Chalk one up for the CME.  Lets see if it works and what effect it has on 
liquidity.

Regards,

John J. Lothian

Disclosure: Futures trading involves financial risk, lots of it!

Disclosure: John J. Lothian is the President of the Electronic Trading 
Division of The Price Futures Group, Inc., an Introducing Broker.