Year-to-date volume through August reached more than 255.1 million contracts, exceeding the 231.1 million contracts traded in all of 2000 and representing a nearly 69 percent increase over year-ago levels. This represents an underlying value of $24.6 trillion for August, bringing year-to-date notional value to $181.1 trillion.
Volume on CME's GLOBEX®2 electronic trading system rose to 6,910,631 contracts in August, a more than a 163 percent increase over August 2000 and a record for the exchange. The previous volume records for both overall trading and for electronic trading were in March 2001, with 34,305,354 contracts traded overall, including 6,628,979 on GLOBEX2. Year-to-date electronically traded volume rose nearly 148 percent to 49,179,651.
Combined interest rate product volume set a new all-time high of 23.4 million contracts, up more than 156 percent over year-ago levels. CME's benchmark Eurodollar futures contract set a new August volume record of 14.9 million contracts, holding its position as the world's most actively traded futures contract for the year-to-date.
Total options on futures contracts traded on CME set a third consecutive all-time monthly record, with 8.9 million options changing hands, a 261.6 percent increase over August 2000. An all-time record 8.3 million Eurodollar options changed hands in August. Lean hog options set a monthly record of 22,487.
E-mini S&P 500 futures volume rose nearly 142 percent in August to set an all-time record of 3.5 million contracts. Combined equity index futures and options product volume set a new August record of 8,474,884 contracts, up over 89 percent compared to 2000.
E-mini Nasdaq-100 Index futures set a new August record of 2.6 million contracts, up nearly 191 percent compared to the same period last year. Nasdaq-100 futures also posted an August record with 369,845 contracts, along with 47,401 Russell 2000 and 23,805 S&P MidCap 400 futures.
In August, CME foreign exchange product volume increased 38 percent over year-ago levels to 1.9 million contracts, fueled by the exchange's side-by-side electronic and open outcry trading launched in April. Electronic trading volume in foreign exchange futures reached record levels for the fourth time in five months, with 358,253 contracts changing hands in August, an increase of nearly 24 percent over July levels.
Also for the month, a record 494,717 Euro FX futures changed hands, along with a record 235,883 Canadian dollar futures and 77,504 Australian dollar futures, as well as 22,704 Euro/Japanese yen cross-rate futures. An all-time record was set by Euro FX options, at 84,559, and in Australian dollar options, at 5,344.
CME had 16 days of record-breaking open interest throughout August. At month's end, open interest stood at a record 15,356,931 million positions, up 87 percent over year-ago levels. CME's open interest on futures and futures options is the highest of any exchange worldwide.
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.
