The recently operational trading link between the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (“CME”) and the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (“SIMEX”) is one of the most significant developments to occur in the securities industry in recent memory. While the initial phase of this intermarket, intercontinental link involves only the trading of Eurodollar, Deutsche mark, and Japanese yen futures contracts, the prospects for the trading of additional contracts, and the further expansion of trading hours, ultimately to round-the-clock trading, appear favorable. The internationalization of both foreign and domestic futures markets is clearly the order of the day. A trading link connecting the futures exchanges of two separate nations, however, represents a new and truly experimental phenomenon, one which has prompted concern among regulators and members of the investment community inasmuch as the once abstract regulatory and jurisdictional issues raised by an international trading link have now presented themselves as realities for the first time.
