CME also set a new combined, exchange-wide open interest record of 37,813,601 positions at yesterday's close of business, marking the sixth consecutive exchange-wide open interest record since Feb. 25. Open interest represents the number of contract positions which are not closed out at the end of a trading session. This week, CME's GLOBEX-traded foreign exchange (eFX) product group also set a number of volume and open interest records. On Wednesday, the volume of Australian dollar futures traded on GLOBEX was 20,499 contracts, representing a $1.2 billion in notional value. On Tuesday, March 2, 98,729 GLOBEX euroFX futures were traded and GLOBEX British pounds futures volume was 63,096, representing $15.1 billion and $2.4 billion in notional value respectively.
On Wednesday, CME also set new open interest records in the following contracts: E-mini™ Russell 2000® futures reached an open interest of 63,804 positions; LIBOR futures of 335,156 positions, Long Short Technology TRAKRS II of 3,296,739; Yen-based Nikkei 225 equity index futures, which launched on Feb. 23, reached an open interest of 1,661.
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® electronic trading platform. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moved about $1.4 billion per day in settlement payments in 2003 and managed $39.5 billion in collateral deposits at Jan. 31, 2004. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME), which is part of the Russell 1000® Index.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME and GLOBEX are registered trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. E-mini is a trademark of CME. Nikkei 225, Russell 1000, Russell 2000, TRAKRS, Total Return Asset Contracts and other trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks that are not proprietary to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. are the property of their respective owners, and are used herein under license. Further information about CME and its products is available on the CME Web site at www.cme.com.
