Options on S&P 500 futures also posted record volume, with 61,457 contracts changing hands.
This was the second consecutive day of record volume for E-mini S&P 500 futures, with 184,502 contracts trading on March 21. The previous volume record for E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures was set on March 13, with 144,763 contracts changing hands.
Both E-mini equity index futures contracts—the fastest growing contracts in the history of the exchange—are traded electronically on GLOBEX®2 and are smaller-sized versions of contracts traded actively via open outcry on the exchange’s trading floor. E-mini index trading occurs virtually around the clock from 3:45 p.m. until 3:15 p.m. the following day.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is an international marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX2 around-the-clock electronic trading system. CME offers futures contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign currencies and agricultural commodities. On Nov. 13, 2000, CME finalized its transformation into a for-profit, shareholder-owned corporation as it became the first U.S. financial exchange to demutualize by converting its membership interests into shares of common stock that can trade separately from exchange trading privileges. The exchange moves about $1 billion per day in settlement payments, manages $25 billion in collateral deposits and administers more than $1 billion of letters of credit.
