Trading on CME’s GLOBEX®2 electronic system reached 4.8 million contracts, an increase of 119 percent over February 2000. Year-to-date GLOBEX2 volume rose 124 percent to 9.6 million contracts.
For the second consecutive month, equity index products set a new all-time monthly record, with 6.8 million contracts changing hands. That figure surpasses the previous month’s record number by 4 percent and is 49 percent higher than previous levels. E-mini S&P 500 futures set a new monthly volume record of 2.2 million contracts, while E-mini Nasdaq-100 Index futures set a new record of 1.9 million.
Volume in interest rate products reached the highest level for any February, as 17.8 million contracts were traded, including 12.9 million Eurodollar futures and 4.7 million Eurodollar options—both also February records. Interest rate product trading volume rose 48 percent in February.
Additionally, new all-time records were set in milk futures at 8,947, Euro/Japanese yen cross-rate futures at 6,861 and Russell 2000 options at 1,529. Euro FX currency futures traded a February record of 373,233. Standard sized Nasdaq-100 futures also had their busiest February ever, with 416,445 contracts traded, as did Russell 2000 futures, with 37,970 contracts changing hands.
Open interest on CME stood at a record 10.9 million positions on Feb. 28, the sixth day during the month of new open interest highs. Open interest in Eurodollar futures also stood at a new record of 4.1 million positions, capping off a string of 11 records throughout the month. CME Eurodollars are the first futures product globally to surpass the 4 million mark in open interest. Eurodollar options surpassed even that mark, with 4.6 million open positions at the close of trading yesterday. Exchangewide open interest stands 37 percent higher than previous year levels.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is an international marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX2 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 $25 billion in collateral deposits and administers more than $1 billion of letters of credit.
