Investors Can Now Trade Housing Index Futures as Well

CME, the world’s largest and most diversified futures exchange, today announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with MACRO Securities Research, LLC (MSR), a financial innovations firm located in Madison, New Jersey, dedicated to the creation of instruments designed to unlock liquidity in new asset classes, to launch derivatives based on ten of the Case-Shiller Indexes® (CSIs), published by Fiserv, CSW Inc. (CSW), representing movements in housing price values. These futures contracts are scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2006.

The ten cities include Boston, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York Commuter Index, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington D.C. CME will also list a composite index of the ten cities for trading. The contracts will be settled in cash based on the value of the CSIs for housing.