CME Sets Five Consecutive Days Of Exchangewide Open Interest Records

For five consecutive sessions, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) set a string of exchangewide open interest records reaching 12,635,650 on May 18. The weeklong series of records began on May 14 with 12,250,549. The previous open interest record was set on May 10, with 12,143,935 positions.

CME open interest records are as follows:

May 18, 12,635,650
May 17, 12,612,293
May 16, 12,459,789
May 15, 12,269,363
May 14, 12,250,549

In addition, during the week of May 14, open interest records were set in E-mini S&P 500 futures beginning with 111,389 positions on May 15 and ending with 123,474 positions on May 17. Eurodollar futures set three consecutive sessions of record open interest beginning on May 10 with 4,362,337 and reaching 4,415,138 positions on May 14.

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 $30 billion in collateral deposits and administers more than $1 billion of letters of credit.