03/19/07 CME going virtually 24/7

American Rancher March 19, 2007 The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where cattle and hog futures are traded, will begin offering electronic trading virtually 24 hours a day on the CME Globex beginning this June. John Harangody, Director of Commodity Products at the CME, says the marketplace is dictating around the clock price discovery. Harangody: "The reason why we are doing is because the commodity sector has began embracing electronic trading. Many of our customers are outside of the traditional time zones, the hours we normally trade here. So what we are doing is opening up these markets to make them available to trade for people in non-traditional U.S. hours." Harangody says the meat and livestock business is part of a growing global marketplace. Harangody: "As an example if you take a look at the amount of meat that is exported to other countries, particularly in the case of hogs, but also in the cattle industry it is a significant amount of business and we have people overseas who have price risk." Harangody says having the electronic trading platform will also help accommodate the increasing interest coming from outside investment into the exchange. The Chicago Board of Trade has seen a tremendous volume increase since it implemented electronic day trading in 2006. I'm Bob Hoff.