Mondo Visione Worldwide Financial Markets Intelligence

FTSE Mondo Visione Exchanges Index:

CBOT Precious Metals Complex Continues Strong Performance

Date 21/10/2004

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT®) announced today that the exchange’s Precious Metals complex continues to perform strongly, with open interest in CBOT full-sized Gold futures surpassing 1,000 contracts for the first time. Open interest in the exchange’s 100 oz. Gold futures rose to 1,097 contracts on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 from 925 contracts the previous trading day.

CBOT Senior Vice President Robert Ray said, “The CBOT has created the most transparent, efficient and cost effective way to trade precious metals through our 100 percent electronically traded full-sized and mini-sized Gold and Silver futures contracts. The exchange’s Precious Metals complex offers straight-through processing and around-the-clock access to market users worldwide. These advantages are clearly valued by our customers, and we expect the CBOT’s Metals complex to continue to experience steady growth.”

Volume in the CBOT Metals complex was 5,881 contracts on October 20, with 4,174 contracts traded in the Gold complex and 1,707 contracts traded in the Silver complex. This total represents approximately 6.5 percent of exchange traded gold and silver futures contracts in the United States.

For more information on CBOT products, visit the exchange Website at www.cbot.com.