Included in the open interest record were a record 4,757,500 open positions in Eurodollar futures. Interest rate futures, including Eurodollars, one-month LIBOR, Euroyen and Treasury bills, reached a new open interest high of 4,854,379.
The previous open interest records occurred the one day earlier, August 8: exchange-wide, 14,308,344 positions (revised number*); Eurodollar futures, 4,712,932 positions; interest rate products, 12,324,363 positions. The previous volume record for Eurodollar options was 799,335 on July 18, 2001. The only days when overall volume on CME was higher than yesterday were April 18, 2001, when 2,834,016 contracts were traded and July 18, 2001, when 2,682,228 contracts changed hands.
Open interest is the number of futures and options contracts outstanding at the close of trading each day. As of June 30, 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, Eurodollar futures, introduced in 1981, also represented the world's most actively traded futures contract. Eurodollar options were launched in 1985.
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.
