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CME's South African Rand Contract Pushes Past The 5,000 Open Interest Level

Date 09/09/1999

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange's (CME) South African rand contract has for the first time surpassed the 5,000 contract open interest level following several days of heavy trading activity. Following the close of Wednesday's trading session, open interest in the South African rand stood at 5,161 positions. Open interest is the number of contract positions that are held for more than one trading session. "The 5,000 open interest level is a key liquidity indicator for any contract and frequently results in new and larger participants entering a market," said Yra Harris, a CME board member who chairs the Exchange's Foreign Currency Committee. On Tuesday, the South African rand contract also set a daily volume record when 2,553 contracts traded hands. The CME first began trading South African rand futures and options contracts in May of 1997. The contract is part of the CME's on-going efforts to broaden its line of products to include futures and options contracts based on the currencies, interest rates and stock indices of developing nations. Mexico, Brazil, Russia and New Zealand are among the other countries for which the CME has listed currency futures and options contracts in recent years.