The Winnipeg Commodity Exchange will no longer be shut down when some of the world’s biggest canola producers and purchasers are awake.
The exchange is introducing overnight trading on July 31, although it will not make the exchange a 24 hour per day market.
New sessions for each of the exchange’s commodities will begin between 6:30 p.m. and 6:33 p.m. central standard time, and continue until 6 a.m.
Trading will then be suspended until the normal opening time of 9:30 a.m., and the daytime session will carry on until the usual close of 1:15 p.m.
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Exchange senior vice-president Will Hill said booming business at the exchange and the move of many other exchanges to widen the trading day led to this decision.
“With the substantial increase in interest in our contracts, as illustrated by our escalating volumes, combined with the movement of global agricultural futures markets toward a 24 hour trading schedule, we feel this is the optimum time to provide extended hours of trade,” said Hill.
In the past, some market users have said overnight trading might help canola producers, marketers and processors in Japan, Australia and Europe to use the Winnipeg exchange at the same time they are using other world markets.
The worldwide commodities boom has caused billions of dollars of speculative money to flood into agricultural commodities. It is no longer the realm of a small number of specialized agricultural hedgers and speculators, but part of a global investment industry that has become increasingly computerized and automated.
