Year-to-date, CME volume of 196 million contracts resulted in average daily volume of 2.4 million contracts, 19 percent higher than the daily average of 2.0 million contracts traded in the first four months of 2002. March average daily volume was a record 2.8 million contracts.
Average daily volume traded via open outcry in April totalled 1.3 million contracts, while an average of more than 1 million contracts were traded electronically and 35,000 contracts were privately negotiated. The underlying value of total April volume was $25.9 trillion; average daily notional value totaled $1.2 trillion.
Among product groups, interest rate product volume in April totaled 24.3 million contracts or an average of nearly 1.2 million per day, compared to an average of more than 1.2 million in April 2002.
Stock index product volume totalled 22.2 million or an average of 1.1 million contracts per day in April, compared to an average 626,781 in April 2002. Stock index product volume rose 61 percent in April over previous year levels, while year-to-date volume of 90.4 million contracts represents an 85-percent increase over the first four months of 2002. April was a record volume month for E-miniTM Russell 2000 futures with 207,686 contracts changing hands.
Foreign exchange (FX) volume reached 2.3 million contracts in April and averaged 111,397 contracts per day, an increase of 39 percent over year-ago levels-when FX volume averaged 80,235. FX volume year-to-date of more than 10 million contracts surpassed year-ago levels by 34 percent. Electronic FX was 47,000 per day in April or 42 percent of the FX total, versus 30,000 per day or 29 percent of total in April 2002. Commodity volume totalled 636,798, averaging 30,324 contracts daily, compared to 40,685 in April 2002.
Open interest on CME stood at 22.6 million positions on April 30, up 37 percent from 16.5 million positions at the end of April 2002. Open interest represents the number of futures and options on futures contracts outstanding at the close of trading each day.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is the largest futures exchange in the United States. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX® around-the-clock electronic trading platform. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moved about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments in the first quarter of 2003 and managed $28.5 billion in collateral deposits at March 31, 2003. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME).
