The Singapore Mercantile Exchange - (SMX) is a pan-Asian multi-product commodity and currency derivatives exchange situated in Singapore. It offers a comprehensive platform for trading a diversified basket of commodities including futures and options contrac" href="http://smx.com.sg/" target=_blank>Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) has announced major initiatives to broad base the market participants by introducing new categories of Trade Member. In addition, SMX announced the launch of two popular contracts in precious metals. These initiatives are expected to further develop depth, breadth and liquidity on the exchange.
New Trade Membership Categories: The launch of the new Trade Membership categories is aimed at better serving a wider spectrum of market participants and investors and to achieve a wider geographical reach. The new categories are ideally suited for physical traders, small and medium enterprises and retail users active in the commodities and currency derivatives market. The expanded Trade Membership categories offer a tiered admission fee and annual subscription fee structure that provides cost-efficient direct market access, preferential exchange transaction fees, while retaining the option of membership transferability for the existing category.
As part of the new initiative, the existing single category of Trade Member will be replaced with the following three sub-categories of Trade Membership:
The Trade Member (Associate) category will allow an individual professional trader in Singapore to become a member of the exchange at an attractive annual subscription fee of just S$900 + GST. Further, the Trade Member (Associate) is entitled to trade in all products listed on SMX and also enjoy preferential exchange transaction fees compared to a non-member of SMX.
Mr. V Hariharan, CEO, SMX said, “ With the recent expansion in trading momentum on SMX, we feel it is timely for us to expand our Trade Membership offerings. We have also observed a growing number of physical and OTC traders wanting access to robust listed hedging tools, as well as an increasing number of savvy investors and proprietary trading firms seeking to diversify their trading portfolio through the use of commodities and currency derivatives. Our new Trade Membership categories will offer these potential participants a lower cost of entry into trading on SMX.”
Mr.Jignesh Shah, Vice-Chairman, SMX said, “ The new membership offerings will spur entrepreneurship and are aimed at attracting the new generation physical and OTC commodity traders to the futures market to hedge their risks. Singapore has a well established OTC derivatives market and we hope that SMX will be able to provide these traders a liquid, transparent and reliable exchange platform.”
New Precious Metals Contracts
SMX also announced the launch of two precious metals futures contracts “ SMX E-Gold” and “ SMX E-Silver” with effect from 8th May 2012. Both contracts are cash settled against the benchmark Gold and Silver futures contracts in the East. The SMX E-Gold contract will offer a convenient trading unit of 1 kg, and will be based on the Gold futures price in India, but quoted in US dollars. The SMX E-Silver contract will offer a convenient trading unit of 30 kg, and will be based on the Silver futures price in India, but quoted in US dollars. Both contracts will be available for trading across multiple time zones, allowing participants in Asia, Europe and the US to trade the contract during their respective trading hours.
With these new contracts from SMX, market participants will be able to use and benefit from pricing in the most liquid Gold and Silver futures contracts in Asia. They will be able to hedge their exposure based on one of the most liquid precious metals physical and futures market and also link their hedging to other liquid precious metals contracts in the world. They will also be able to optimise margin benefits across the benchmark contracts leading to considerable savings in their trading cost.
Source: Commodities Now