Year-to-date dollar volume—or underlying value of contracts traded—on CME totals $141.5 trillion, surpassing total 1999 dollar volume by $3.5 trillion. Year-to-date trading volume of 208.4 million contracts represents an increase of 11.6 percent.
Volume traded electronically on the GLOBEX®2 system rose 110 percent year-to-date, totaling 30,882,381 contracts and representing nearly 15 percent of total exchange volume. November’s volume of 3,655,128 is 135 percent higher than year-ago levels.
November trading volume in equity index products was 63 percent higher than year-ago levels. Also in November, volume in interest rates rose 22 percent higher versus year-ago levels, while overall currency and agricultural trading volume declined 25.9 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively. Among currencies, Euro FX futures volume rose more than 45 percent year-to-date to 3.8 million contracts. In the agricultural sector, live cattle options traded an all-time record 80,753 in November.
Trading volume in numerous equity index products set new records for any November, including E-mini S&P futures at 1,843,192, E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures at 1,445,733, Nasdaq 100 futures at 400,412, Russell 2000 futures at 39,127, S&P MidCap 400 futures at 25,334 and Nasdaq 100 options at 49,665.
The final day of the month saw a new single-day volume record in E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures: 105,721. New open interest highs were set in E-mini S&P 500 futures at 79,101, E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures at 77,689, and standard-sized Nasdaq 100 futures at 51,264.
2000 volume surpassed CME’s previous second-busiest year on Nov. 29, when a total of 206,563,345 contracts had traded versus 205,330,270 at year-end 1994. CME’s busiest year was 1998, when 226,618,831 futures and options changed hands.
Open interest represents the number of contracts outstanding at the close of trading. Exchangewide open interest stood at 8.5 million positions on Nov. 30, 12.1 percent higher than year-ago levels.
