The New York Mercantile Exchange said it will move electricitytrading from open outcry to the Nymex Access electronic tradingsystem following the close of trading March 2. At the 4 p.m. startthat day of the Access session, which marks the start of the March3 trading session, the Exchange will list all of its existingelectricity futures and options contracts for trading on the systemthrough 2:30 PM the next day. The contract will begin trading at 4p.m. Monday through Thursday evenings and will begin trading at 7p.m. Sundays.

Nymex electricity contract offerings are futures and optionsbased on delivery at the California-Oregon border; at Palo Verde,AZ; into the Cinergy transmission system; into the Entergytransmission system; as well as based on delivery at the westernhub of the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland interconnection.

The move has been expected since July because of poor liquidity.Robert Levin, Nymex senior vice president for planning anddevelopment, said last summer the exchange was examining variousproposals to bring liquidity to the contracts, particularly with aneye to bringing in more market makers. “The contracts themselvesare fine, and so it’s a matter of, I think, supportingmarket-making and then getting back out to the customer base, thecommercials, and reinforcing with them what we’re doing and attractthem back in. I think that’s pretty much it,” he said at the time.

Joe Fisher, Houston

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