CBOT President and CEO Bernard W. Dan said, "The innovative spirit that led the exchange to introduce Agricultural options has thrived at the CBOT for 156 years. These products revolutionized the futures industry by adding new flexibility to risk management and trading strategies, and the CBOT is proud to serve the needs of the agricultural community by providing highly liquid and transparent options markets."
Trading in CBOT Agricultural options began as a pilot program. Within just a few months of their launch, volume began to expand, as the products quickly gained widespread acceptance throughout the futures industry. Today, the CBOT offers Agricultural options contracts on corn, oats, wheat, rice, soybeans, soybean meal and soybean oil futures.
CBOT Agricultural options also were part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Options Pilot Program, operating from 1990 to 1995, that was developed to encourage greater use of these risk management tools among producers. The CBOT worked closely with the U.S. government, the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) to create the program.
Trading of CBOT Agricultural options has grown significantly in the last 20 years. In 1985, volume in these products was 1.2 million contracts, accounting for 5.0 percent of total CBOT Agricultural volume. Today, Agricultural options comprise more than 21 percent of total CBOT Agricultural volume. It is anticipated that the CBOT will trade more than 17 million Agricultural options contracts in 2004. Since the launch of Agricultural options, volume in Agricultural futures has also grown dramatically, rising from 23 million contracts in 1985 to 60 million contracts in 2003 and 56.4 million contracts so far this year.
