Highest Monthly Trade Volume In WCE's 114-Year History Guaranteed

Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WCE) has established that February 2001 will have the highest monthly trade volume recorded in its 114-year history.

Total monthly futures volume, for all commodities combined, reached record levels of 270,193 contracts on February 23, 2001, with three days remaining to trade. These numbers confirm WCE's record futures volume levels and are well ahead of the previous record monthly futures volume of 265,054 contracts, established in October 2000.

As well, monthly volume levels for futures and options pit trade combined reached 274,688 contracts on February 23, 2001, surpassing the previous record of 271,932 contracts also established in October 2000.

With three days of trade remaining in the month of February, WCE February 2001 canola pit trade volume reached 236,534 contracts, well surpassing the previous monthly pit trade volume record for canola of 208,639 contracts established in October 2000.

Pit trade volume in feed wheat futures set a new daily volume record on February 23, 2001 reaching 4,383 contracts. The previous record in feed wheat volume was established November 26, 1993 at 3,578 contracts.

The record volume witnessed in feed wheat was supported by active trade across all listed months, with continued active interest in the newly designed Oct 01 feed wheat contract being observed.

"WCE is very pleased to see how well the revised feed wheat contract has been received. These record volume levels in feed wheat pit trade confirm the industry support of the contract," said Bruce Love, Director of Marketing for WCE.

Since the introduction of the revised feed wheat contract, which was listed on February 14, 2001, and effective with the Oct 01 contract, the average daily volume for the new crop Oct and Dec contracts combined has been over 600 contracts per day.

WCE provides the world's premier price discovery and risk management tool for canola. Canola is the most actively traded commodity on WCE and has been trading since 1963; options on canola futures have been available since 1991.

WCE trades futures contracts in: canola, western barley, flaxseed, oats, feed wheat and field peas; and options contracts in: canola, flaxseed, feed wheat and western barley.

Established in 1887, Winnipeg Commodity Exchange provides financial instruments for price discovery and the transference of risk in an efficient and open manner.