CME Sets New Stock Index Trading Volume Records

Trading in Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) stock index futures and options enjoyed their best April ever with new April trading records posted by five contracts and an all-time monthly volume record set by the popular E-mini S&P 500 contract. Meanwhile, several CME currency futures and options contracts also posted monthly records. Total exchange volume on the CME in April was 15,435,933 contracts. Total open interest on all CME products stood at 7,996,064 contracts as of April 28. Equity and other index futures and options products totaled 3,508,707 in April, up 14 percent from 3,159,948 traded in April 1998. Leading the way in activity growth was the E-mini S&P 500 contract which traded a total of 831,346 contracts last month, a nearly threefold increase from volume levels posted during the same period one year ago. A new single-day volume record was also set by the E-mini contract on April 19 when 54,400 contracts traded - the first time single day volume in the contracted broke the 50,000 contract level. NASDAQ 100 Index futures posted their best April ever, with 181,934 contracts changing hands, more than twice the number of contracts traded in April 1998. Other equity index products posting record April volume periods were S&P Midcap 400 futures (27,665), Russell 2000 futures (27,162), S&P BARRA Value futures (1,003), and S&P BARRA Growth futures (558). E-mini S&P 500 options and NASDAQ 100 options also set an all-time monthly trading record, with 7,283 and 15,675 contracts respectively. Among the currency contracts posting their best ever monthly volumes were the South African rand futures (4,519), Euro FX options (9,742), and the Euro FX/Japanese yen cross rate futures (1,156). Currency futures contracts posting their best April performance included the Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and New Zealand dollar.