CBOT August Average Daily Volume Climbs 17.8 Percent From Last Year - August Volume Rises To Third Best Month Ever In Exchange History - Electronic Platform Experiences All-time Record Trading Day

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) announced today that Exchange-wide average daily volume (ADV) continued to climb in August. Average daily volume rose to 2,721,612 contracts in August, up 12.7 percent from the same period last year and 19.3 percent year-to-date (YTD). In addition, total volume in August rose to its third highest level ever at 62,597,066 contracts, up 17.8 percent from the same period in 2004 and 19.3 percent YTD.

Total Exchange open interest at the end of August also rose 9.7 percent from last year to 11,399,430 contracts. Several CBOT financial and commodity contracts achieved new records in open interest and volume in August:

Wheat futures set a daily open interest record of 264,379 contracts on August 23.
Corn futures set a daily open interest record of 751,137 contracts on August 25.
Full-Sized Silver futures set a daily open interest record of 1,830 contracts on August 25.

In addition, daily and monthly volume records were set in several Financial futures and options contracts:

Five-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures set a daily volume record of 1,357,911 contracts on August 31.
Two-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures set a daily volume record of 339,974 contracts on August 30.
Thirty-Day Fed Funds futures set a daily volume record of 236,923 contracts on August 31.
Five-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures set a monthly volume record of 12,662,913 contracts.
Thirty-Day Fed Funds options set a monthly volume record of 717,913 contracts.

Year-to-date through August, a total of 6,578,050 futures and options orders, excluding futures spreads, were electronically sent directly to floor brokers using Electronic Clerks, or order receipt devices. Eighty-nine percent of Agricultural futures orders were filled electronically in August compared to 83 percent in the same month in 2004.

Volume on the CBOT’s premier electronic trading platform also experienced a daily all-time high during the month. Exchange-wide electronic trading volume rose to a new record of 3,975,649 contracts on August 31. Total electronic futures volume achieved a new daily high of 3,945,106 contracts in the same day.

August Highlights for Financial Futures and Options

Financial futures and options complex ADV rose 10 percent from last year and 22.8 percent from last month to 2,243,314 contracts. ADV rose 22 percent YTD to 2,282,177 contracts.
U.S. Treasury Bond futures ADV rose 17.2 percent from last year and 25.9 percent from last month to 337,881 contracts. ADV rose 29.6 percent YTD to 357,618 contracts.
Ten-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures ADV rose 10.5 percent from last year and 25.9 percent from last month to 874,787 contracts. ADV rose 18.1 percent YTD to 878,387 contracts.
Five-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures ADV rose 13.7 percent from last year and 43 percent from last month to 550,561 contracts. ADV rose 24.4 percent YTD to 496,315 contracts.
Two-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures ADV rose 103.1 percent from last year and 61.7 percent from last month to 93,224 contracts. ADV rose 156.5 percent YTD to 81,074 contracts.
Thirty-Day Fed Funds futures ADV rose 6.3 percent from last month to 44,754 contracts.
U.S. Treasury Bond options ADV rose 42.1 percent from last year and 44.6 percent from last month to 64,038 contracts. ADV rose 11 percent YTD to 66,104 contracts.
Ten-Year U.S. Treasury Note options ADV rose 10.3 percent YTD to 243,379 contracts.
Five-Year U.S. Treasury Note options ADV rose 17.8 percent YTD to 83,128 contracts.
Thirty-Day Fed Funds options ADV rose 57.2 percent from last year and 19.9 percent from last month to 31,214 contracts. ADV rose 48.9 percent YTD to 24,829 contracts.

Agricultural Futures and Options Highlights

Agricultural futures and options complex ADV rose 33.4 percent from last year to 375,516 contracts and 6.6 percent YTD to 388,523 contracts.
Wheat futures ADV rose 31.2 percent from last year and 29.1 percent from last month to 44,555 contracts. ADV rose 22.9 percent YTD to 41,249 contracts.
Corn futures ADV rose 52.1 percent from last year to 130,155 contracts and 15.6 percent YTD to 120,237 contracts.
Soybean futures ADV rose 28.4 percent from last year to 64,661 contracts and 8 percent YTD to 85,092 contracts.
Soybean Oil futures ADV rose 10.9 percent from last year to 27,699 contracts.
Wheat options ADV rose 35.5 percent from last year to 6,645 contracts and 31 percent YTD to 8,336 contracts.
Corn options ADV rose 37.3 percent from last year to 33,905 contracts.
Soybean options ADV rose 50.6 percent from last year to 28,296 contracts and 15.6 percent YTD to 29,827 contracts.

Precious Metals Futures

Precious Metals futures and options complex ADV rose 55.1 percent from last year and 16.9 percent from last month to 3,821 contracts. Volume rose 44.5 percent YTD to 3,304 contracts.
ADV in mini-sized Silver futures was up 71.9 percent from last month to 698 contracts.
ADV in mini-sized Gold futures rose 16.2 percent from last month to 1,068 contracts.
ADV in full-sized Silver futures rose 86.6 percent from last month to 321 contracts.

Equity Complex Futures and Options

Equity Index futures and options complex ADV rose 9.2 percent from last year to 98,894 contracts and 14.1 percent YTD to 106,767 contracts.
ADV in DJIA^SM futures rose 9.3 percent from last month to 5,295 contracts.
ADV in mini-sized Dow^SM ($5) futures rose 11.8 percent from last year to 91,929 contracts and 19 percent YTD to 96,484 contracts.
ADV in mini-sized Dow ($5) options rose 47.2 percent from last year to 1,381 contracts and 157.8 percent YTD to 2,797 contracts.

Seat Sales (Membership with Stock)

CBOT Full Membership last traded at of $2,050,000 on August 25, 2005.
CBOT Associate Membership last traded at $700,000 on August 22, 2005.
CBOT COM membership last traded at $170,000 on August 19, 2005.
CBOT IDEM Membership last traded at $84,100 on August 31, 2005.

Please see the accompanying data sheets for details on ADV and volume for the month. For more information on CBOT products, visit the Exchange’s website at www.cbot.com.