CME’s open interest has set new records five times during February, beginning with 10,239,409 open positions on Feb. 9. That record was topped last week on Feb. 12 at 10,248,283 positions and again on Feb 13 at 10,398,404 positions before this week’s increases. The record set Feb. 26 was 10,466,752 open positions.
Eurodollar futures set a new record for the third consecutive session beginning on Feb. 23 with 3,976,061 positions and reaching 4,065,091 positions yesterday. Open interest in Eurodollar options also recorded a new high yesterday with 4,418,276 positions. The underlying value of these open positions represents more than $8.4 trillion in interest rate risk management at CME.
Eurodollar futures set previous open interest records on Feb. 13 at 3,953,631; Feb. 9 at 3,869,578; Feb. 8 at 3,780,987; Feb. 7 at 3,759,359; Feb. 6 at 3,738,895; Feb. 5 at 3,733,217; and Feb. 2 at 3,721,582. The Feb. 26 record was 3,999,183 open positions.
In addition, the E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contract posted its second consecutive day of record open interest with 81,071 positions yesterday, surpassing the Feb.26 record of 80,051 positions. The new record surpasses the one set on Dec. 4, 2000 with 77,692 positions.
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 GLOBEX®2 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.
