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ASA president voices concerns with expanded trading hours

The president of the American Soybean Association (ASA) says he has concerns about the expanded trading hours at the Chicago Board of Trade.

The new trading hours are from 5 p.m. to 2 p.m. Central time, Sunday through Friday.  They went into effect this past Sunday.

ASA president Steve Wellman of Syracuse, Nebraska tells Brownfield there is still confusion about how the expanded trading hours will coexist with the release of USDA reports on grains and oilseeds.

“Having the major USDA reports released during trade hours, I think, does open up possibly having inaccurate price discovery happening during trading,” says Wellman.

Another concern, Wellman says, is that there is already unequal access to USDA information based on differing Internet capacity across the country and around the world.   He says differing abilities to place orders in reaction to reports released during trading hours will create, what he calls, “inequitable opportunities for market participants”.

AUDIO: Steve Wellman (3:51 MP3)