Page 17 - Taiwan Futures Exchange 2019 Annual Report

H istory Taiwan's competent authority and financial sector established the Futures Market Promotional Committee in December 1995 as the first step towards creating a domestic futures market that would elevate Taiwan's standing in international financial markets. They then set up the Exchange Preparatory Office in December 1996. The legislature provided the legal framework for the market with its passage of the Futures Trading Act in March 1997. With this framework in place, the Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) officially opened for business and launched its first product, TAIEX Futures on 21 July 1998. TAIFEX added Electronic Sector Index Futures, Finance Sector Index Futures, and Mini-TAIEX Futures to its product roster afterwards. The introduction of TAIEX Options in December 2001 expanded TAIFEX's product line from futures to options, and increased the range of hedging vehicles available to traders. TAIFEX went on to launch Equity Options, its first non-index-based product, in January 2003. Seeking to provide cash market traders with additional risk hedging tools, TAIFEX next introduced commodity-based products, launching US Dollar Gold Futures in March 2006, NT Dollar Gold Futures in 2008, and Gold Options in 2009. TAIFEX's rollout of single stock futures on 25 January 2010, provided equities investors with another hedging tool and means to reduce market tracking errors. TAIFEX expanded its single stock futures offerings in 2014 by adding Taipei Exchange equities and ETFs to its underlyings. In responding to the rapid growth of Taiwan's offshore RMB market, TAIFEX launched two USD/RMB FX futures, providing investors with an RMB hedging channel on 20 July 2015. TAIFEX marked a new milestone by launching the first foreign-index-based product, TOPIX Futures, on 21 December 2015. We continued to inject new energy into our market with the launch of RMB options on 27 June 2016, and EUR/USD FX Futures and USD/JPY Futures on 7 November 2016. TAIFEX launched an after-hours session on 15 May 2017. Beginning shortly after the regular session is complete and running until 5 a.m. on the following day, the session provides for nearly around the clock trading, covering the European and American regular sessions, and makes the Taiwan futures market more internationally competitive. TAIFEX also introduced DJIA and S&P 500 Futures on the same day, rounding out our foreign index product line. TAIFEX further developed our FX hedging channels by introducing GBP/USD FX Futures and AUD/ USD FX Futures on 22 January 2018. To diversify product offerings, TAIFEX tapped into the energy market by launching Brent Crude Oil Futures on 2 July 2018. On 1 October 2019, TAIFEX introduced Nasdaq-100 Futures and TPEx 200 Futures to provide traders with more trading and hedging channels. TAIFEX currently lists nearly 300 products falling into eight categories: equity index futures, equity index options, equity futures, equity options, FX futures, FX options, commodities futures, and commodities options. 13