Average daily volume year-to-date is nearly 2 million contracts.
Trading volume on GLOBEX®, CME's electronic trading platform, also set a February record, with 10,113,983 contracts traded, up 111 percent versus year-ago levels. Year-to-date GLOBEX volume of 19,948,251 represents a 109-percent increase over 2001 and constitutes 25 percent of CME's total volume. On Wednesday, Feb. 27, GLOBEX trading set a new single-day volume record as 672,931 contracts changed hands, including records of 366,190 E-mini S&P 500 futures and 247,917 E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contracts.
E-mini S&P 500 futures set a new all-time monthly record in February, with 5.3 million contracts changing hands, breaking a record set in October 2001 of 5.29 million.
Eurodollar futures, CME's flagship interest rate product and the world's most actively traded futures contract, set a new February record of 14.5 million contracts traded, 12 percent higher than year-ago levels. Eurodollar options on futures also reached a new February high of 6.5 million contracts. Year-to-date, interest rate product volume is 29 percent higher than in 2001, with February volume setting a new high for any February of 21 million contracts.
Stock index product volume set a new February record of 11.6 million contracts, including the E-mini S&P 500 record and February records of 3.6 million contracts in E-min Nasdaq-100 futures, 49,158 in Russell 2000 futures and 22,814 S&P MidCap 400 futures. Year-to-date, stock index product volume is 69 percent higher than 2001 levels.
Trading in CME foreign exchange products in February rose 15 percent compared to year-ago levels, to 1.5 million contracts, including February records of 434,472 Euro FX futures and 56,671 Euro FX options on futures. Electronically traded volume in foreign exchange reached a new all-time monthly record of 427,538 contracts.
Additionally, CME milk futures set a new February record of 9,680 contracts traded.
Open interest on CME stood at 17.4 million positions at month's end, up 60 percent over year-ago levels. Open interest represents the number of contracts outstanding at the close of trading.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is the largest futures exchange in the United States. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX® electronic trading platform. CME offers futures contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moves about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $28.2 billion in collateral deposits. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.
