Tom Ascher, NQLX CEO, says the 8 November launch date is a "reasonable and responsible" date to commence trading. “Many of our member firms requested a Friday start date and the majority requested November 8th which allows for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s normal 35 day statutory approval process,” he says.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has also announced plans to launch the exchange's Eagle Project, which will permit electronic calendar spread trading on its Globex electronic trading platform, approximately three weeks after trading begins on single stock joint venture company OneChicago.

The Eagle release will enable customers to execute trades electronically in the first eight quarterly expirations and 22 corresponding calendar spreads in Eurodollar futures.

The CME was forced to defer implementation of Eagle in June, following the failure of the exchange's Globex e-trading platform to cope with volume surges. The exchange says it has since extended capacity as its Remote Data Centre (RDC), which now serves as the primary site for the operation of Globex.

"The significant technology and infrastructure upgrades that we have recently put in place have resulted in performance, speed and capacity improvements," says CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "We want to make sure we support the ambitious OneChicago project before we proceed to the Eagle launch."

Eagle has been designed to enable CME customers to trade complex Eurodollar calendar spreads on Globex in a way that replicates how those same spreads trade in the open outcry environment. It is expected to increase liquidity on the system by creating implied prices for outright orders and spreads.

Following the launch of Eagle in Eurodollars, the new technology will be rolled out to the exchange's other electronically traded products in the coming months, says Duffy. In a second release planned for 2003, the system will be extended to accommodate additional Eurodollar trading strategies, including packs, bundles and butterflies.