2006-07-24
By: Chris Sumner

An overnight trading session will be added at the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange beginning August 1st.

Senior Vice President Will Hill says the option was first looked at last fall, but the decision was made to hold off until several volume milestones were reached.

He's not concerned the addition of the new session will dilute liquidity on the Exchange.

The Chicago Board of Trade has an overnight session which consistently sees 5 to 10 percent of the exchange's total daily volume being traded.

Hill says it appears to be no negative impact on liquidity.

Benefits of adding an overnight session will include accessing traders in other time zones and trading areas.

The overnight session will begin at 6:30 p.m. for futures and 6:33 p.m. for options, with trading continuing to 6 am the following morning.

Trading will be halted at that time with the day session beginning at 9:30 am until 1:15 pm.