The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ), the world’s largest Exchange group, in partnership with IKON GLOBAL MARKETS (IKON), a futures commission merchant registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission offering foreign exchange, futures and options on futures to its client base, launched NASDAQ OMX XAU/USD Spot Gold FuturesTM (patent pending) on the NASDAQ Futures Exchange (NFX) on February 8th, 2012.
Product is a cash-settled, exchange listed Gold contract that simulates the OTC spot gold market. It is retailed sized at 10 Troy Oz contracts and set as annual contracts, thus quarterly rolls are not needed compared to some traditional exchanges. It is offered 24 hours via EFPs and cleared by Options Clearing Corporation. During launch of the product, Diwakar Jagannath, Chief Executive Officer of IKON, explained the advantages of the product as: "With the significant reforms brought about by the Dodd Frank Act, the structure of the OTC gold market has changed. By combining the components of a futures contract with the integrity of the OTC spot gold market, this is a natural progression of the customer protections and transparencies dictated by that legislation."
We are now able to see very first monthly results announced at Nasdaqtrader newsletter. According to the newsletter: ‘There is currently no other listed gold futures contract which combines a cash-settled rolling spot contract with a swap point feature. It is an innovative product that is gaining momentum in the futures market.
With the product already live in the market volumes have been promising.
SPOT GOLD FUTURES
FEBRUARY 2012 RECAP
> NFX traded 25,995 Spot Gold Futures contracts
> Average Daily Volume was 1,733 contracts
> Open interest stands at 1,917 contracts
> Over 10,000 contracts were traded on 2/29/12
IKON has been working closely with the Chinese regulators to establish an FX ECN.
Forexmangates team wrote a detailed article on FX in China. Available in the current Q1 2012 quarterly report.
