CME shelved 24/7 oil futures as clients shunned weekend desks, CEO Duffy says
CME•CME Group shelved its proposed 24/7 crude oil futures contract because commercial clients were unwilling to staff weekend trading desks, CEO Terry Duffy said. Duffy warned that traders were turning to offshore platforms, while the company’s gold and silver futures have recorded 20% to 30% of average daily volume on weekends.
1. Oil contract shelved
CME Group shelved its proposed 24/7 crude oil futures contract after commercial clients were unwilling to staff weekend trading desks, CEO Terry Duffy said. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission blocked CME’s bid to offer the contract in July, and the exchange scrubbed its planned launch earlier this month.
2. Offshore trading concerns
Duffy warned that participants were using VPNs to trade perpetual futures on offshore exchanges that U.S. participants are not supposed to use. CME’s other newly launched 24/7 categories, gold and silver futures, have recorded 20% to 30% of their average daily volume on weekends.
3. Wider 24/7 plans
Duffy said moving financial products to round-the-clock trading would require a major overhaul of banking, clearing and settlement infrastructure. CME executives also pointed to early demand from banks, neoclouds and data center operators for proposed futures tied to compute costs; regulatory approval remains pending.
