February Second Highest Monthly Volume In NYBOT History

February, the shortest month, was an exceptionally big month at the New York Board of Trade® (NYBOT®), where the monthly volume came in at the second highest level in the exchange’s 135-year history. In only 19 trading days, the NYBOT markets recorded 3,413,473 combined future and options contracts, close behind the all-time high of 3,611,479 contracts set in June 2004.

Year-To-Date (or YTD) volume was equally impressive, with 6,245,987 combined futures and options contracts through February 2005, 28% more than the first two months of 2004, when 4,864,892 contracts traded. In addition, NYBOT posted new records in futures open interest (March 1, 962,290) and options daily open interest (February 3, 931,788).

Some individual product highlights during February (Year-To-Date) include:

The NYBOT financial markets experienced increased activity during February, with the Russell 1000® Index futures (symbol R) contract up 84%, and the options rising 50%. The Russell 1000 Index options contract also set a monthly volume record during February of 13,606 contracts, and a daily open interest record on March 1, 2005, of 21,294 contracts. The NYBOT U.S. Dollar Index® futures (symbol DX®) gained 12% in volume during the month.

The Sugar No. 11^SM contract, NYBOT’s largest contract in volume terms, saw its futures contract (symbol SB) jump 48% during February, and the sugar options contract (symbol SO) rose 83%. Sugar also set a monthly volume record on February 5, 2005, of 1,279,305 contracts, and an options daily open interest record of 459,053 contracts on February 9, 2005.

The Cotton No. 2SM (symbol CT) futures contract experienced a 21% rise, and the Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice options contract (or FCOJ, symbol OJ) rose 80%.

Cocoa futures (symbol CC) rose 20%, and the options (symbol CO) jumped 84%.

Additionally, NYBOT’s Coffee “C”® futures and options contracts each set monthly volume records on February 5, with 469,605 futures contracts and 210,384 options contracts. Also, a daily open interest record of 161,215 contracts was set on February 9 for the coffee options contract.

The New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) is New York’s original futures exchange, where the world trades food, fiber and financial products. For well over a century, the New York Board of Trade has provided reliability, integrity and security in a global marketplace for cocoa, coffee, cotton, ethanol, orange juice and sugar, as well as currency and index futures and options. Information about the New York Board of Trade can be found at www.nybot.com and www.nybotlive.com.