About CME Mexican Peso Futures

Some of the world’s greatest emerging markets create new opportunities, as well as risk, in today’s integrated global marketplace. One of the leading emerging markets is Mexico, where investment interest has soared during the last several years and Mexican equities are now some of the most actively traded in the world. The sometimes turbulent nature of the Mexican market has created opportunities for both hedgers and speculators alike.

The CME® Mexican peso futures contract, launched in April 1995, was the first emerging markets product to be traded on the Exchange. It became one of the fastest growing currency product ever traded at the CME and by May 1995, average daily volume in peso futures topped 3,200 contracts. CME currently offers CME Mexican peso futures and options on futures on CME Globex® as well as on its trading floor as part of its Emerging Market Futures products.

CME Mexican peso futures and options on futures contracts offer financial institutions, investment managers, corporations and private investors the right tools to take advantage of, and to manage, the risks associated with the fluctuation of the peso versus the U.S. dollar.

The contract’s size is 500,000 Mexican pesos. Trading can occurs in $.000025 per Mexican peso, or $12.50 per contract. CME Mexican peso futures contracts are quoted in U.S. dollars per peso, and call for physical delivery at expiration which takes place on the third Wednesday of the contract month, in the country of issuance at a bank designated by the CME Clearing House. Exercised options on futures contracts are settled by the delivery of futures contracts.

CME Mexican peso futures trade 13 consecutive calendar months plus two deferred March quarterly cycle contract months. Options on futures contracts trade nine consecutive calendar month options, and four weekly options with a monthly underlying future.

Among the advantages of trading CME Mexican peso futures include:

• by offering futures contracts CME is dramatically expanding the trading and hedging possibilities in the Mexican peso market.
• profits and losses are denominated in U.S. dollars.
• upon contract expiration, there is an exchange of Mexican pesos for U.S. dollars at delivery. In the currency regime imposed by the Bank of Mexico, CME's Mexican peso futures contract is unsurpassed in this regard.
• CME has an open-outcry auction market in which both large and small investors have access to the best available price at all times. Traders at CME also benefit from the efficiencies of the CME Clearing House, which virtually eliminates counterparty risk.