1.Background and Purpose of Revision TOCOM will revise the contract specification of Nikkei-TOCOM Commodity Index Futures contract (TOCOM NEXT) for the reasons outlined below: Since the launch on March 23rd, 2010 on a trial basis(*) of the Nikkei-TOCOM Commodity Index Futures, the market price (closing price) and the Settlement Index Point based on the actual Index value (theoretical price) have been constantly diverging, resulting in frequent additional margin calls on the first mark-to-market when a new position is taken, or triggering loss-cut orders immediately after the opening of a Day Session where the market price diverged again from the daily Settlement Index Point. These problems have deteriorated trading volume and market liquidity of the contract, and TOCOM concluded that if they were to be left unsolved, the risk of unforeseeable loss would continue to rise as liquidity further aggravates. In order to ameliorate these problems, and to fulfill our function as a public utility to provide investment and hedging tools against inflation, TOCOM has concluded that a drastic reform is necessary for the Nikkei-TOCOM Commodity Index Futures contract. To be more precise, the Contract Day Transaction (with no expiry date) shall be replaced by an ordinary style cash-settled futures contract with expiry dates on which all remaining positions are settled against the Final Settlement Index Point (i.e. The automatic roll over will NOT apply to outstanding positions as is the case with Contract Day Transactions) which will ensure that the market price and actual index value converge on the final settlement day. To avoid any disruption, market participants will have ample time to prepare for this change and both Contract Day Transactions and the newly launched ordinary futures transaction will temporarily run in parallel to allow participants to move their outstanding positions in the Contract Day Transaction. The reform will take effect on May 2nd 2011, when the March 2012 contract will be launched provided that the draft new contract specification stated below be duly approved by the Minister/Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan. With regard to the Contract Day Transaction, all remaining positions will automatically be closed as they are cash-settled against the Final Settlement Index Point based on the actual Index value on February 29th 2012. * The trial listing period is until March 23rd 2013, as provided in Article 9-2, 4 of the TOCOM Market Rules. 2.Schedule(TBC) May 2nd, 2011: Contract-month futures transaction will be launched (with March 2012 contract). Feb. 29th, 2012: Contract Day Transaction will be terminated. 3.New Contract Specification (Draft Abstract)
Contract-Month Futures (Trial Listing) | |
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Market | TOCOM NEXT: Nikkei-TOCOM Commodity Index Market (Trial Listing) |
Underlying Index | Nikkei-TOCOM Commodity Index |
Type of Trading | Index Futures Transaction (Cash-settled against the Index) (Contract Month Transaction, which has expiry dates) |
Contract Unit | JPY10,000 × Execution Index Price (1.0 point = JPY10,000) |
Price Increment | 0.1 point |
Contract Month |
Two nearby contract months (either March, June, September or December) within a 6 month period, each contract being available to trade for 6 months (*). |
Final Settlement Index Point (Index point used for final settlement) |
Index Point calculated based on opening prices of the underlying commodity futures contracts for the day session (after 9:00), and disseminated once a day after the Day Session. If there are no transaction and thus no opening price either for an underlying commodity futures contract in the day session on the final settlement day, the nearest available price in the Night Session will be used to calculate the Final Settlement Index point, in accordance with the Nikkei-TOCOM Commodity Index Detailed Rules |
Last Trading Day | Day session on the business day preceding the last business day of the current contract month. (Trade ends at 15:30) |
Final Settlement Day | The last business day of the current contract month. (All remaining positions are cash-settled against Final Settlement Index Point) |
First Trading Day of a New Contract Month | Day session on a business day following the Last Trading Day of the current contract month (Trading shall start at 9:00). |
Daily Settlement Index Point | Volume weighted average price (VWAP) calculated from the contract prices and traded volume for a certain time period before the end of Day Session. |
*Inquiries on this matter may be addressed to Research Institute of Market Structure, Tokyo Commodity Exchange, Inc.