CME February Volume Is Best On Record For CME Index Products. E-Mini S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 See Busiest Month Ever

Equity index products trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) set a new February volume record last month, when 3.1 million contracts changed hands. For the second consecutive month, E-mini S&P 500 futures set an all- time monthly volume record, with 650,449 contracts changing hands. Nasdaq 100 Index® futures also notched a new all-time mark, at 132,436. Total February volume on the CME reached 15.8 million contracts, an increase of 2.6 percent over year-ago levels and 2.3 percent higher than January 1999 volume. GLOBEX®2 electronically traded volume totalled 1,064,885, an increase of 101 percent above year-ago levels. The all-time monthly record in E-mini S&P 500 futures included record single-day volume of 41,400 contracts traded on Feb. 25. These products were among those setting new volume records for any February: S&P 500 futures (2,149,654), Euroyen futures (83,250),Russell 2000 futures (22,212), Australian dollar futures (59,834), random length lumber futures (22,184), lean hog options (17,781), Brazilian real futures (14,483), BFP milk futures (4,358) and options (1,512) and E-mini S&P 500 options (2,382). Open interest, the number of contracts outstanding after the close of trading, stood at 8.5 million positions at month's end, up 8.9 percent since the end of January. At the same time it set a monthly volume record, Nasdaq 100 futures achieved a new high open interest mark on Feb. 25 of 15,792 positions. Last week, the CME filed for regulatory approval to trade an E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures contract, similar to its popular E-mini S&P 500 contracts.