Nodal is pleased to announce the launch of Futures-Style Margin (FSM) option contracts today, adding to our wide, ever-growing product portfolio. With Futures-Style Margining, you will experience greater capital efficiency by not paying the option premium upfront in contrast to Equity-Style Margining (ESM). The initial premium payment will be replaced by the daily variation margin payments like futures contracts. This means you can maximize your trading potential and more effectively manage your capital. Please visit our website for more information on Margining Styles for Options.

Nodal now lists seven new FSM option contracts and has converted many of our ESM option contracts into FSM versions.

Options contracts are now either dual listed, converted from ESM to FSM, or kept as is. Dual listing means that Nodal launched an FSM version of an existing contract while keeping the existing ESM option contract active. Please click here to download a detailed file showing the treatment of each contract. Contact the help desk or call 703- 962-9860 with any questions about these changes.

Nodal Exchange today announced strong performance in both power and environmental futures as of the end of June 2023. Nodal achieved its best half year power volume for the first half of 2023 with 1.54 billion MWh traded, up 3.5% from first half 2022 which was the previous record. The majority of U.S. power futures open interest is on Nodal Exchange with 1.275 billion MWh representing $112 billion of notional value based on both sides as of the end of June 2023. U.S. power futures open interest on Nodal Exchange grew 7.8% year over year as of the end of June.

Nodal also posted strong growth in volumes and open interest in the environmental market suite in the first half of 2023. Total volume for Nodal environmental products in the first half of 2023 was 164,638 lots, up 20.7% from 136,435 lots a year earlier. Total open interest in Nodal environmental products hit a new record of 274,766 during May and ended June 2023 with 271,457 lots, up 33.3% from a year earlier and setting a new record for month end open interest. The Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) product group also hit an open interest record of 241,451 lots in the first half 2023 and ended June at 233,567 lots, up 37.3% from a year earlier. The open interest of RECs on Nodal at the end of June 2023 represents 66.8 million MWh of clean energy, which is 62.5% share of the total U.S. RECs market. The renewable generation of electricity it represents can power over 6.3 million U.S. homes for a year.

To better serve our community, we have extended our daily market trading hours from 8:00 am – 5:00 pm to 8:00 am – 6:00 pm from Monday, June 26, 2023. All times are in US Eastern. The extension of our trading hours is a direct response to the feedback we have received from our community, and we are delighted to implement this change to support your trading activities.