(November 23 – 16:10 ET) – The Montreal Exchange has unveiled its timetable for the gradual implementation of SAM, the Montreal Automated System.

The timetable aims to minimize the period during which both the exchange and its members must support two different trading systems.

By publishing the timetable now, the exchange hopes to allow all concerned to prepare adequately for the migration of products from open-outcry to SAM.

Last September, Bourse de Montréal Inc. successfully completed the first stage of its automation plan — the transfer of the Ten-year Government of Canada Bond Futures to SAM. Following that first step, the exchange say it is now able to provide a specific schedule for transferring all remaining derivative products to SAM.

The exchange says the transfer process should be completed by Summer 2001. The trading floor will be closed soon after the last options class will have been transferred to SAM. Following the transfer all trading will be carried out from computer terminals installed directly in the offices of the exchange’s approved participants.

“The implementation of SAM will improve our markets — in terms of their access, their visibility and their quality — while reducing transaction costs for investors as well as financial intermediaries. From our perspective, as the Canadian Derivatives Exchange, this choice is inevitable, as can be attested by the current worldwide trend towards automation. In fact, all derivatives markets created in the last decade have electronic trading systems,” said Luc Bertrand, president and CEO of Bourse de Montréal Inc.

Automation Time Table

  • December 11, 2000 — Three-month Canadian Bankers’ Acceptance Futures (BAX) and Options on Three-month Canadian Bankers’ Acceptance Futures (OBX) begin trading on SAM
  • January 29, 2001 — Index Futures, S&P/TSE 60 (SXF) begins trading on SAM
  • January 31, 2001 — Launch of single stock futures on Nortel on SAM
  • Mid-February 2001 — Launch of Sectorial Index futures, S&P/TSE 60 on SAM
  • From February 2001 — Launch of Canadian and American single stock futures on SAM
  • April 16, 2001 — Nortel stock options begin trading on SAM
  • Beginning May 2001 — Stock options solely listed on Bourse de Montréal Inc., gradually transferred to SAM
  • From mid-May 2001 — Inter-listed stock options, gradually transferred to SAM

-IE Staff