At 1:20 pm today, William Parrish Sr. (of Parrish & Heimbecker) rang the old brass bell on the trading floor of the WCE to signify the end of the final open-outcry trading session as it moves to fully electronic trade on Monday. I would guess that well over 200 past and present members attended to witness this little passing of history, myself included. In his closing comments, Mike Gagne, WCE President, told of the many times in its history that the exchange has taken bold steps (such as this one). We were also told of the many new trading participants that have signed up for trading now that it will be electronic. A rumour was quickly circulating around the floor about some heavy hitters from the US that are signed up and poised to trade substantial volumes at WCE. Once electronic trading has proven successful at WCE, they would then take the WCE success to the nay-sayers in Chicago as evidence that ag commodities can trade electronically successfully.
Time will tell if the exchange has made a wise move. But the time is right to show support by participating. Even if this additional volume comes and the WCE contracts gain liquidity, I urge all producers with an interest in canola, feed wheat, feed barley, and flax to strengthen their exchange products by participating. And you know, there is no shame in trading small lots – if each canola farmer out there traded futures equal to only 20% of his crop, it would create about 1.6 million tonnes of futures trade (based on 2004 crop), equal to about 83,000 contracts.
Time will tell if the exchange has made a wise move. But the time is right to show support by participating. Even if this additional volume comes and the WCE contracts gain liquidity, I urge all producers with an interest in canola, feed wheat, feed barley, and flax to strengthen their exchange products by participating. And you know, there is no shame in trading small lots – if each canola farmer out there traded futures equal to only 20% of his crop, it would create about 1.6 million tonnes of futures trade (based on 2004 crop), equal to about 83,000 contracts.
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