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Average daily volume for the year was 2.2 million contracts, compared to 1.6 million in 2001, a 35 percent increase. Average daily volume on GLOBEX was 785,615, in a year in which electronic trading volume surpassed one million contracts in a single day for the first time in June. By year's end, 55 such million-plus days had occurred on GLOBEX.
The notional value, or underlying dollar value of transactions on CME in 2002 represented $328.6 trillion in asset allocation and risk management activity, an increase of 12 percent above the record $294 trillion set in 2001. Average daily notional value was $1.3 trillion in 2002, compared to $1.2 trillion in 2001.
"As we have provided increased access opportunities, improved technology and new product choices, more and more institutional and retail investors are turning to the liquid products on CME for their risk management needs," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "In 2002, CME set new volume records in both our open outcry trading pits and on GLOBEX, our electronic trading platform. Last year CME further strengthened its position as the largest futures exchange in the United States. By year's end, we also became the nation's first publicly traded financial exchange-a strategic move that we believe effectively sets the stage for our continued growth, competitiveness and innovation well into the future."
"The tremendous volume growth in our E-mini stock index products contributed strongly to our record year," said CME President and CEO Jim McNulty. "The E-mini S&P 500 futures contract volume rose 194 percent over 2001, and E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures increased 67 percent. At the same time, the Eurodollar remained the world's most actively traded futures contract, despite a year in which there was only one interest rate adjustment, versus 11 such moves in 2001."
CME open outcry pit traded volume totaled a record 352.5 million contracts in 2002, while electronic trading volume reached nearly 198 million contracts; an additional 8 million contracts were privately negotiated as block trades or exchange-for-physicals (EFPs).
Three times in 2002, CME's monthly volume reached new record levels, in June, July and October, when 61.5 million contracts were traded. For the year, volume in interest rate products increased 12.8 percent over 2001 levels to 309 million contracts, while stock index volume grew 104 percent to 217.5 million contracts and foreign exchange volume rose more than 8 percent to 24.3 million contracts. Commodity product volume declined 11 percent, totaling 7.6 million contracts.
For the fourth quarter of 2002, CME volume of 144.7 million contracts surpassed the fourth quarter of 2001 by 24 percent. Average daily volume in the fourth quarter totaled nearly 2.3 million contracts, including 122,243 TRAKRSSM contracts per day. TRAKRS, which stands for Total Return Asset ContractsSM, are designed to enable customers to track an index of stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities or other financial instruments. Each TRAKRS contract, for which CME receives significantly lower clearing and GLOBEX fees, had an underlying value of approximately $25 at launch. Designed and maintained by Merrill Lynch, TRAKRS indexes are licensed exclusively to CME for North America. Excluding TRAKRS, average daily volume in the fourth quarter was 2.1 million contracts versus 2.4 million contracts in the third quarter.
December 2002 was CME's busiest December in its history, with more than 39 million contracts changing hands, an increase of 19 percent over year-ago levels, and up 9 percent excluding 3 million TRAKRS contracts. Average daily volume for December excluding TRAKRS was 1.7 million compared to 1.6 million in December 2001. Typically, December volume is seasonally weaker due to the holiday period.
Open interest stood at 18.8 million positions on Dec. 31, 2002, up from 15 million positions on Dec. 31, 2001. CME's open interest reached a record 24.8 million positions on Dec. 12, 2002 and compares to an open interest high in 2001 of 18.9 million positions. Open interest on CME reached record levels 25 times in 2002. Peaks in open interest typically decline following quarterly contract expirations. Open interest represents the number of futures and options on futures contracts outstanding at the close of trading each day.
2002 Highlights:
- An all-time record year with 558.4 million contracts traded, up 36 percent over the previous record of 411.7 million in 2001
- Highest open interest in the world for futures and options on futures set Dec. 12 at 24.8 million positions
- GLOBEX volume exceeds 1 million contracts in a single day on 55 occasions
- Eurodollar futures are the world's most actively traded futures contract, with a record 202.1 million contracts traded in 2002
- Record annual volume in E-mini S&P 500 futures of 115.7 million contracts
