(March 2 – 16:10 ET) – The Montreal Exchange is about to face some competition in the single-stock futures business.

HedgeWorld.com is reporting that the board of directors of the Chicago Board Options Exchange has approved plans to introduce single-stock futures. It says that William Brodsky, the CBOE’s chairman and CEO, announced the news at a lunch of the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago.

Other options exchanges including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade are expected to get into this business, too. The ME began single-stock futures trading with Nortel Networks Corp. on January 31. It expects to extend the service to other stocks later this year.

The U.S. Congress only approved trading in single-stock futures late last year. It is expected that principal-to-principal trading could begin in August, and public trading could begin in December. “It has been said that single-stock futures are the next new frontier in investment products,” Brodsky said. “This is as new a development as we’ve had in a long, long time. It will touch everyone, regardless of whether they trade them or not.”
-IE Staff