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The Kansas City Board of Trade trading volume for 2010 posted large gains over both January 2009 volume and last month’s trading volume. An active month in Hard Red Winter wheat futures trading was responsible for the trading volume increase. Open interest in the Hard Red Winter Wheat contract continued to grow and was showing large increases in year-over-year comparison.
HRW wheat futures volume for the month of January amounted to 279,945 contracts, an increase of 45.7 percent over January 2009 volume of 192,152 contracts and 36.4 percent higher than December 2009 volume of 205,232 contracts. Increased volume could be related to the USDA supply and demand reports that came out in January, which had some surprising numbers and a decrease in wheat acreage in the USDA acreage report. Also, funds were rolling positions earlier than in the past, traders said.
Open interest swelled during the month of December and is nearly twice that of a year ago. At the end of January 2010 open interest in the HRW wheat contract stood at 150,583 contracts, an increase of 93.2 percent compared to last year at this time, which stood at 77,928 contracts. Open interest is only 22,353 contracts shy of the all-time record of 172,936 contracts set on July 12, 2006. The increase in open interest was attributed to increased fund interest in the Kansas City HRW wheat futures contract and an increase in spread trade activity between the Kansas City and Chicago wheat futures contracts. Also, there was an increase in intra-market spread trading as commercials were locking in some of the carries in the market, traders said.
Wheat options trading volume of 5,652 contracts was an increase of 11 percent compared to last month’s trading volume of 5,091 contracts.
Total exchange volume of 285,597 contracts in January was an increase of 44.1 percent compared to January 2009 and 35.8 percent compared to December 2009.
The KCBT, founded in 1856, is Kansas City’s oldest business and the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat. Daily quotes, market commentary, historical data and charting services are available on our website at www.kcbt.com.
(in contracts)
|
Volume
|
Volume
|
%
|
Volume
|
%
|
Year-to-date
|
Year-to-date
|
%
|
|
| CONTRACT |
Jan 2010
|
Jan 2009
|
Change
|
Dec 2009
|
Change
|
2010 Volume
|
2009 Volume
|
Change
|
| Wheat |
279,945
|
192,152
|
45.7%
|
205,232
|
36.4%
|
279,945
|
192152
|
45.7%
|
| Wheat Options |
5,652
|
5,974
|
-5.4%
|
5,091
|
11.0%
|
5,652
|
5974
|
-5.4%
|
| Value Line |
0
|
0
|
0.0%
|
0
|
0.0%
|
0
|
0
|
0.0%
|
| Total Exchange |
285,597
|
198,126
|
44.1%
|
210,323
|
35.8%
|
285,597
|
198126
|
44.1%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Open
|
Open
|
|
Open
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interest
|
Interest
|
%
|
Interest
|
%
|
|
|
|
|
|
1/29/2010
|
1/30/2009
|
Change
|
12/31/2009
|
Change
|
|
|
|
|
| Wheat |
150,583
|
77,928
|
93.2%
|
145,279
|
3.7%
|
|
|
|
| Wheat Options |
13,601
|
20,013
|
-32.0%
|
12,605
|
7.9%
|
|
|
|
| Value Line |
0
|
0
|
0.0%
|
0
|
0.0%
|
|
|
