Exchange-wide volume at ICE Futures exceeded 400,000 contracts for the first time in a single day on April 25, when a new trading record of 407,303 contracts was established. The previous volume record was set on March 9, 2006 with 391,016 contracts. Also on April 25, the ICE WTI Crude futures contract achieved record volume of 143,455 contracts, surpassing the April 18 record of 121,887 contracts.
ICE Futures recorded ADV in the ICE WTI Crude futures of 92,638 contracts for April, following its February 3 launch. Open interest in the ICE WTI Crude contract on April 30 stood at 188,519. On March 31, ICE Futures eliminated the fee waiver for the ICE WTI Crude futures contract.
OTC Business Segment
In ICE’s OTC business segment, average daily commissions reflect daily trading activity in the company’s electronic OTC markets. In April 2006, ICE’s average daily commissions increased 75.3% to $483,343 from $275,649 in April 2005. The year-on-year increase in average daily commissions was driven by the continued expansion of ICE’s cleared OTC product volumes in natural gas and power. In April, ICE introduced 13 new cleared OTC contracts.
OTC Segment: April Average Daily Commissions
|
Apr. 2006
|
Apr. 2005
|
% Change
|
|
| ICE OTC Average Daily Commissions |
$483,343
|
$275,649
|
75.3
|
Futures Business Segment
At ICE Futures, ADV in April 2006 increased 123.0% to 305,285 contracts compared to ADV of 136,897 contracts in April 2005. Total monthly futures volume rose 101.8% to 5,800,412 contracts, compared to monthly volume of 2,874,836 in April 2005. April was the fourth consecutive month an ADV record achieved at ICE Futures, surpassing the March 2006 ADV record of 295,529 contracts.
At April 30, 2006, total open interest in ICE Futures contracts stood at 960,222 contracts, with open interest in the ICE Brent Crude futures contract at 472,445 contracts. This compares to total open interest of 509,507 contracts and Brent Crude futures open interest of 290,932 at April 30, 2005.
Futures Segment: April Volume Statistics
| Contract |
Total Volume
Apr. 2006
|
Total Volume
Apr. 2005
|
Volume
% Change
|
ADV Apr.
2006
|
ADV Apr.
2005
|
ADV
% Change
|
| ICE Brent Crude Futures |
2,932,591
|
2,105,392
|
39.3%
|
154,347
|
100,257
|
54%
|
| ICE Gas Oil Futures |
1,012,404
|
732,289
|
38.3%
|
53,284
|
34,871
|
52.8%
|
| ICE WTI Crude Futures |
1,760,130
|
n/a
|
--
|
92,638
|
n/a
|
--
|
| Other contracts* |
95,287
|
37,155
|
156.5%
|
5,015
|
1,769
|
183.5%
|
| Total ICE Futures |
5,800,412
|
2,874,836
|
101.8%
|
305,285
|
136,897
|
123%
|
* “Other contracts” include ICE Heating Oil Futures, ICE Unleaded Gasoline Blendstock (RBOB) Futures, ICE UK Natural Gas Futures, ICE-ECX CFI Futures, ICE UK Electricity Futures and ICE Brent Options and ICE Gas Oil Options. The ICE-ECX CFI Futures contract is the result of a cooperative relationship between ICE Futures and the Chicago Climate Exchange, Inc. and its subsidiary, the European Climate Exchange. ICE Futures shares in the revenue derived from the ECX CFI Futures contract.
Additional April Highlights:
• On April 21, ICE Futures introduced ICE New York Harbor Heating Oil Futures and ICE New York Harbor Unleaded Gasoline Blendstock (RBOB) Futures, along with three spreads or “cracks” between new and existing contracts.
• To date this year, ICE has launched 34 new cleared OTC contracts. In February, ICE announced plans to introduce more than 50 additional cleared contracts in its OTC markets during the first half of 2006. The first set of natural gas contracts became available for trading March 3, and the second set began trading on March 24. Thirteen more contracts were introduced on April 7.
• In April, ICE Futures marked its one-year anniversary as an electronic exchange. Also during the month, ICE Futures renamed the screen names of its products consistent with its own name change in the fourth quarter from IPE. The names now appear as “ICE Brent”, for example, transitioning from “IPE Brent”.
Additional historical futures volume and OTC commission data can be found at: https://www.theice.com/marketdata/recordsAndVolumes/volumes2006.jsp
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
Statements in this press release regarding IntercontinentalExchange’s business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the Company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors in Item 1(A) of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K (File No. 001-32671), as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 10, 2006, which are incorporated by reference into this press release.
