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Also on Friday, Eurodollar options set a new record high of 7,618,294 open positions, pushing open interest in interest rate options traded on CME to a record 7,619,710. Open interest in all interest rate products-futures and options-reached a record 12,481,036 positions. The previous records for these products were: Eurodollar options, August 8 at 7,513,464 positions; interest rate products, August 15 at 12,371,182 positions; and interest rate options on August 8 at 7,514,839 positions.
E-mini S&P 500 futures also reached a new high Friday of 132,458 positions, surpassing the previous record of 128,000 set on June 15, 2001.
Open interest is the number of futures and options contracts outstanding at the close of trading each day. As of June 30, Eurodollar futures, introduced in 1981, represented the world's most actively traded futures contract. CME also has the largest futures and options on futures open interest of any exchange in the world, with 12.2 million contracts open as of June 30, 2001. Eurodollar options were launched in 1985. Also traded in the interest rate complex are contracts based on One-Month LIBOR, Euroyen and Treasury bills.
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 exchange and 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 $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $28.4 billion in collateral deposits.
