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These records came at the end of a week during which the Exchange introduced parallel trading for its flagship IPE Brent Crude futures contract. In the course of this first week for parallel trading, the IPE has seen a total of 625,150 IPE Brent crude Futures traded. Of this 16,914 contracts were executed on the ICE platform between 2am and 10pm, representing approximately 3% of total Brent Trades. Of the 16,914 that traded electronically, 3,059 contracts were transacted when the IPE Brent Crude futures pit was open.
In the same period IPE Gas Oil Futures traded 275,602 contracts of which 5,750, or approximately 2%, of which were traded on the ICE platform. IPE Gas Oil futures currently trade on the ICE platform "Out of hours", that is when the IPE Gas Oil futures pit is closed, between 02:00 and 09:00 hours and between 18:00 and 22:00 hours.
Chief Executive, Richard Ward said, "This last week has been momentous for the IPE. I am, naturally, very pleased that the IPE has posted record open outcry volumes on two consecutive days and that in the same week we have launched parallel trading of our Brent contract on the ICE platform. The IPE continues to demonstrate that it is the market of choice for oil market participants in times of high volatility and uncertainty. In introducing parallel trading we have extended choice and flexibility to our users in how they access the Exchange and I look forward to it contributing to the continuation of the strong growth that our business has experienced over the course of 2003."
All volumes split by electronic and open outcry are available on the IPE website: www.theipe.com
