There were 204,567 canola futures contracts traded during February, representing an increase of 40.8% from a month ago and 33.9% from a year ago. On Friday, February 20, 2004 a new single day volume record for any May futures contract traded on WCE was set when 13,215 May 2004 canola futures contracts were traded.
Feed wheat volume rose 37.3% from last month and 26.0% from a year ago with 7,434 contracts trading during February.
Western barley trade was 42.6% higher than a month ago at 16,265 contracts.
Options volume rose significantly during February. There were 3,797 canola options traded representing an increase in volume of 151.3% from a year ago. A total of 525 western barley options were traded during the month, bringing the grand total of all options traded in February to 4,322. This level of trade is 172.9% higher than the options trade recorded a year ago.
Total volume for the 2003/04 crop year-todate stands at 1,182,473 contracts.
At the end of February 2004 total open interest was 80,459 contracts. This is an increase of 20.1% from level of open interest recorded at the end of February 2003.