Total exchange volume for 2002 amounted to 3,326,836 contracts. This marks the first time that annual volume has exceeded 3 million contracts. The previous exchange volume record of 2,664,669 contracts was set in 2000. This year's record breaks that tally by 662,167 contracts or nearly 25 percent.
Wheat futures annual volume traded in 2002 was also an annual record. A total of 2,738,536 contracts were traded, breaking the previous record of 2,427,950 contracts set in 2000 by 310,586 contracts or 12.8 percent.
The wheat options contract set an annual volume record for the sixth year in a row. A total of 570,823 contracts traded, more than doubling last year's record of 243,311 contracts. The record was first broken in July of 2002 and amounted to a 134.6 percent increase at year's end.
The Kansas City Board of Trade, chartered in 1876, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat.
