About two weeks ago they finally expanded grain markets trading hours at the CME. Before the electronic markets wouldn't open until the pit open at 9:30 am. This meant when the big crop reports came out (at7:30am) the market would be closed and untradeable until the open at 9:30am.

Tommorrow (June 12) is the first big crop report since this change. They will even be opening the grain markets at 7:20 on these report days because those crusty old bastards in the grain pits don't want to possibly lose out on a fee or commision

But it should be interestingas these numbers can cause extreme volatility. I love trading numbers and volatility. I will likely just watch tommorrow as this is a first but this could be an extremely interesting opportunity in the future.

it's terrible form imo and i expect to only see this last a couple of months (until the regulators step in and place a mandatory halt on report days).

tomorrow is going to come down to who has the best micro at opening reports .. .

all orders are going to be pulled right before the opening. if the report is anything substantial things could get ridiculously wacky

It will be wild. Just like unemployment for any other market or crude and gas supply numbers or fed announcements. These all happen when the markets are open. These are the moments that traders live for. Why should grains be closed when their reports come out? Doesn't make sense to me. News is news and being open when the news comes out is better than being closed when the news comes out if you ask me. I will be watching closely to see just what kinds of opportunities avil themselves but I'll wait at least another report or two before I jump in the pond.

cant disagree more. unemployment reports aren't really an apt comparison. those are one number which can easily be compared to a projected number. it takes about 2 seconds to process the information.

as i'm sure you know, this is what an ag report looks like: http://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde/latest.pdf

that's not a number you can analyze in a few seconds.

not to mention the site has a tendency to lag on report days. there's been multiple instances where I haven't been able to get the report open at 8:30 exactly, which didn't matter in the past but will obviously be an issue now.

your point that markets should be open when news comes out is reasonable but there is a fine line between total liquidity and unfair/dangerous market conditions. there's a big difference in processing information over the course of seconds compared to even just a few minutes. one will lead to unneeded volatility.

also, regards to your comment:who in particular do you think these new conditions benefit. for whom do you think they hurt? also, do you recognize the positive impact on decreasing volatility in markets (and do you agree that even a 10 minute suspension would have serious 'pros' and almost zero 'cons' related to the news is news argument)


(my bad if I'm coming off strong, it's just been a years worth of the cme just bumbling around messing up just about every issue that they've been confronted with (yes, I realize this one is mostly out of their control with ICE forcing their hand))

I don't think it really hurts anyone. It benefits short term traders. But the market is gonna end up where it ends up. In the end value will be found. Since like you say ICE has forced the issue CME isn't gonna let them get the lionshare of the volume on the reports. I will agree that the crop reports are more detailed than economic numbers and take more digesting but even with economic stuff and fed announcements you big sentiment changes as the implications are digested further. Even with a 9:30 open we would see a lot of gyrations off of the 7:30 numbers as there would be a lot of jockeying trying to see what the big boys were really doing. Now we'll just see it sooner as well as even greater gyrations. It actually might end up being just too scarey to trade at all and tommorrow I am in total "watch and learn" mode.

yeah volatility is often good for short term traders but I don't think adding volatility to no benefit (as opposed to a regulated 10 or 30 minute halt) is a good thing. especially in the world of electronic + flash trading we could see some really weird stuff.

there will be a ton of opportunity tomorrow though

I was expecting it to be a little wilder. There were a few nice swings but it was far more muted than I had expected. Typical headfake up followed by selloff then bounceback. First 5 minutes had about a 21 cents range in beans and 13 cents each in corn and wheat. Definitely tradeable. Oil weekly supply numbers often crazier than this was and monthly UE numbers give far more action typically. But it is an opportunity and I will be in there swinging next report.

I appreciated this reminder to get up earlier today. Corn bearish from a cursory glance at report, neutral beans & wheat. I'm short July corn at 588. I agree response was pretty muted. July corn had a 25 cent range, though, which is rather wild.

yea it didnt really say anything so it was quiet. I wouldn't extrapolate too much though . if there's a limit up or limit down report things will still be way crazier than they normal would be.

I was surprised that there was still so many bids and offers at 7:29ish

out of my corn at 586, that was slooooooooooooooow. I traded in and out of wheat several times waiting for corn to budge. Doesn't look like it wants to do much.

Another big report coming this morning. Since first one was sort of subdued I am still on the sidelines for this one and will try and get a better feel for how these will play out before jumping in. Since we are in a sort of volatile weather market right now it may be a little bit crazier this time around.

+ last day of quarter, should be a volatile one

There were definitely some very nice tradeable moments in that first 5 minutes. I will finally start playing these things next time around but only that initial surge and headfake when the market is trying to find value.

closed at 12pm today. can't remember the last time I've seen that (its not like it's christmas eve... its the day before the 4th in the driest market in 20 yrs), caught me off guard but lucky