Volume on GLOBEX®, CME's electronic trading platform, rose 93 percent to 12,727,738 contracts, while year-to-date electronically traded volume increased by 90 percent to 43,201,210 contracts.
April set an all-time monthly record for trading of futures contacts on CME at 33.9 million contracts. Last month was also the best April on record for trading of options on futures contracts, with 9.8 million contracts changing hands.
Stock index product volume reached an all-time record of 13.8 million contracts. Included in the stock index total are all-time records of 7.2 million E-mini S&P 500 futures, 4.2 million E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures, 53,233 Russell 2000 futures, 33,965 E-mini Russell 2000 futures and 10,620 E-mini S&P MidCap 400 futures.
Volume in interest rate products set a new April record of 27.3 million contracts, up 29 percent from April 2001. Eurodollar futures, the world's most actively traded futures contract, posted an April record of 17.9 million contracts, up 18 percent from year-ago levels. Volume in Eurodollar options on futures had an April record of 7.6 million contracts, an increase of 65 percent.
Volume in foreign exchange products rose 27 percent in April over the same month last year, when CME first introduced side-by-side open outcry and electronic trading of foreign exchange futures. April records were set in Euro FX futures at 477,307 contracts, Canadian dollar futures at 249,581 contracts and Australian dollar futures at 84,371 contracts.
Commodity options on futures set an all-time monthly volume record with 121,389 contracts traded. In addition, an all-time volume record was set in feeder cattle options on futures, with 26,003 contracts changing hands. Lean hog options on futures posted an April record of 29,728 contracts.
Open interest on CME at the end of April stood at 16.5 million positions, an increase of 43 percent over year-ago levels. 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 contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moves about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $28.2 billion in collateral deposits. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.
