Merc Will Try Out Global Futures Trading in April

Chicago’s commodity markets said Friday that they will test their proposed global electronic futures-trading system next month though they still lack enough commitments from other exchanges to make it a reality.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade hope to begin operating the long-delayed Globex system around the middle of this year, Board of Trade Chairman William O’Connor told traders and brokers at the Futures Industry Assn.’s annual meeting in Boca Raton.

Chicago Merc President William Brodsky said the exchanges will test the system using 250 computer terminals around the world by the end of April.

The French futures exchange, Marche a Terme Internationale France, is the only other exchange committed to offering products on Globex and allowing its members to use the system. Some other foreign exchanges, whose participation is crucial to creating a truly global, 24-hour system, worry that joining Globex will mean losing some control over their own products.

Brodsky said Chicago exchange officials were meeting during the convention with counterparts from other exchanges to resume Globex talks that were suspended in 1989 when the Board of Trade agreed to join the project as a partner.