At month's end, open interest stood for the first time ever at more than 13 million positions, having reached 13,158,541 and culminating a series of 17 new daily records set throughout the month. CME's open interest on futures and futures options is the highest among exchanges worldwide.
Volume on CME's electronic trading system, GLOBEX®2, rose 133 percent in May to 6,604,555 contracts, while year-to-date electronically traded volume has risen 141 percent to 29,392,791 contracts.
The underlying value of the contracts traded in May totaled $23.9 trillion, and year-to-date underlying value of trading equals $112.9 trillion.
Total options traded on CME set a new all-time monthly record of 7.3 million, a 93.7 percent increase over May 2000. Interest rate products set an all-time monthly volume record of 22.5 million contracts in May, up 66.3 percent over year-ago levels. Equity index products set a new May record of 8.4 million contracts, up 61 percent compared to 2000.
CME currency product volume in May of 1.6 million represents a 17.2 percent increase over 2000. May's electronically traded currency futures volume of 286,424 beat the previous single-month record of 222,562, set in April 2001 by 29 percent. CME introduced "side-by-side" electronic and open outcry trading of CME currency and cross-rate futures contracts on April 2.
Products setting new all-time volume records in May included Eurodollar options, at 6.7 million contracts, E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures at 2.9 million contracts, milk futures at 10,154 contracts, lumber options at 5,228 and Russell 2000 options at 1,626. Among products surpassing any previous May record were Eurodollar futures at 15.7 million, E-mini S&P 500 futures at 2.9 million, Nasdaq-100 futures at 487,334, Euro FX futures at 407,698, and Russell 2000 futures at 42,072.
CME's busiest volume month occurred in March 2001, with 34.3 million contracts changing hands. Open interest is the number of futures and options contracts outstanding at the close of trading each day. Open interest can be seen as a measure of the use of risk management instruments by institutions and individuals with a long-term stake in the markets, as well as the liquidity of a contract.
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 $28 billion in collateral deposits and administers more than $1 billion of letters of credit.
