ELX Futures, L.P., a new fully electronic futures exchange announced today that it has released its fee schedule and block trade thresholds for trading U.S. Treasury futures contracts. ELX Futures received regulatory approval May 27, 2009 from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to become a Designated Contract Market, according to a company release.

ELX Futures will have a $0.09/contract bundled fee (clearing and exchange fees) for users with Average Daily Volume above 400 contract sides. For low volume users at or below 400 contract sides of Average Daily Volume, the bundled fee is $0.24/contract. The new fee schedule will represent a large reduction in costs for most market participants.

Other aspects of the ELX Futures fee schedule are: (1) to benefit from these fees there are no shareholding or membership requirements; (2) operational simplicity of only two fee tiers; (3) no fee surcharge for block trades, EFP's, give-ups or trade busts; (4) once a trader reaches the higher Average Daily Volume threshold during a monthly billing period then all the trades during that month qualify for the lower rate retroactively; and (5) ELX Futures will keep this fee structure in place for a minimum of one year from the time of launch.

To support institutional trading needs and ensure that investors are able to execute large volume trades at a fair and reasonable price without creating undesirable volatility in the marketplace, ELX Futures will allow block trades to be submitted meeting the minimum quantity of 1,000 contracts for 2-Year Notes, 5-Year Notes, and 10-Year Notes, and 500 contracts for 30-Year Bond futures.

Neal Wolkoff, Chief Executive Officer of ELX Futures, said in the release, "ELX Futures is introducing its first set of products, partnering with its consortium of primary dealers and leading proprietary trading firms. Through superior technology, its near zero latency arbitrage connection between cash and futures, and an updated rule set with reduced pricing and trading alternatives, we will offer market participants advantages previously unknown to the futures world. The products have a familiar feel, but ELX Futures is something different."

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