Also yesterday, NASDAQ-100 ® futures set an open interest record for the third consecutive day, with 123,965 open positions. The contract had open interest of 121,430 positions on June 17 and 123,927 positions on June 18.
In addition, the E-miniä Russell 2000 ® futures contract traded a record 18,502 contracts yesterday, exceeding the previous volume record of 17,115 contracts which was set on April 9, 2003.
Open interest is a widely recognized indicator of the level of customer interest in an exchange's products. It represents the number of futures and options on futures contracts outstanding at the close of trading each day. CME has the largest futures and options on futures open interest of any exchange in the world.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is the largest futures exchange in the United States for the trading of futures and options on futures. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX® around-the-clock electronic trading platform. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moved about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments in the first quarter of 2003 and managed $28.5 billion in collateral deposits at March 31, 2003. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME).
