MGEX ANNOUNCES EXCHANGE FOR RISK (EFR) IN SPRING WHEAT AND HARD WINTER WHEAT INDEX FUTURES; RECORD MARCH VOLUME - April 1, 2004

MINNEAPOLIS – Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) owners have approved rules that allow Exchange For Risk (EFR) transactions in hard red spring wheat and Hard Winter Wheat Index (HWI) futures.  An implementation date for EFRs will be announced subsequent to MGEX’s filing of the rules with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and completion of internal programming.

An EFR is an ex-pit transaction involving the exchange of a futures position for an over-the-counter (OTC) position.  These transactions provide market participants a way to initiate or unwind existing or new OTC positions and are acceptable for OTC derivatives that have a reasonable price correlation to the spring wheat or HWI futures contracts.  EFR transactions are currently available for the National Corn Index (NCI) and National Soybean Index (NSI) futures contracts.

In addition, the Exchange also announced that March records were established for hard red spring wheat futures, total futures volume and total Exchange volume, breaking records established in 1999.  Total MGEX spring wheat futures volume for March totaled 104,732 contracts, breaking the previous March record of 90,340.  Total futures volume for the month was 104,933 contracts and total Exchange volume was 108,550.  The previous records were 92,234 and 95,572 respectively.  Fiscal year-to-date, MGEX total futures and options volume is 54 percent ahead of the same period last fiscal year. 

MGEX, established in 1881, is the only market for hard red spring wheat, Hard Winter Wheat Index (HWI), National Corn Index (NCI) and National Soybean Index (NSI) futures and options. www.mgex.com

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