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Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, today announced that it reached record open interest in its Total Energy futures and options markets of 46.7 million contracts on April 25, and is up 11% since the start of the year.
As participants manage uncertainty in U.S. natural gas markets, open interest across ICE's North American natural gas futures and options, which includes Henry Hub and natural gas basis markets, is up 26% since the start of the year at roughly 26 million contracts. Open interest in Henry Hub futures and options is up 34% over the period, while open interest in North American natural gas futures hit a record 16.85 million contracts on April 26.
“Customers use our deeply liquid energy markets to manage their exposure and price commodities on which millions of people rely upon,” said Trabue Bland, President of ICE Futures U.S. “Our customers are navigating commodity and inflation risks on a scale that many have never experienced and are using all the tools at their disposal through futures and options to do this.”
Reflecting how the market typically reacts to high levels of uncertainty, ICE’s energy options markets have seen particular growth since the start of the year, with open interest in Total Energy options up 35%.
Open interest is the number of contracts that remain open each day and reflects how customers are adding to their positions for a period of time. Open interest in longer-dated positions tends to be held by commercial customers hedging their exposure to price risk.
