Trading volume on GLOBEX®, CME's electronic trading platform, also set a record for any January, with 9,834,268 contracts traded, up 106 percent versus year-ago levels and representing 22 percent of the month's total volume.
Volume in interest rate products set a new January record of 30.9 million contracts, up 37 percent from January 2001, with a January record 19.5 million Eurodollar futures and an all-time record 11.3 million Eurodollar options on futures comprising the bulk of that volume. Eurodollars are the world's most actively traded futures contract.
Stock index product volume also rose to new highs for any January, totaling more than 10.9 million contracts. January records of 4.9 million E-mini S&P 500 futures, 3.7 million E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures and 54,938 Russell 2000 futures were set, as was a well as a new all-time record for E-mini Russell 2000 futures, at 16,534.
Foreign exchange product volume in January rose 10 percent over year-ago levels and totaled 1.7 million contracts. New January records were set in Canadian dollar futures, at 222,878, Euro FX options on futures, at 70,197, and Euro/Japanese yen cross-rate futures, at 4,066 contracts.
Open interest on CME stood at 16.7 million positions at month's end, up 73 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.
