The Kansas City Board of Trade yesterday set another membership sales record with a sale at $350,000, topping the previous record of $341,500 set just the day before. Last year at this time, the record was at $175,000. Membership values at an exchange tend to fluctuate, often reflecting trading opportunities. Membership sales have been steadily rising, with the average sale price for 2005 at $222,761 and 2005 at $152,000.
This record comes at a time of record-high volume for the KCBT, which set new annual volume records for the exchange as a whole and for the wheat futures contract in 2006. Total exchange volume for 2006 amounted to 5,287,190 contracts, breaking the previous record of 3,953,536 contracts set last year by 33.7 percent.
Wheat futures trading volume for 2006 was 4,763,168 contracts, breaking the previous annual record of 3,682,919 contracts set last year by 29.3 percent.
The KCBT is a for-profit corporation organized under the laws of Delaware. There are 192 Class "A" (equity) memberships or shares of stock in the exchange and 60 "B" (non-equity) or associate memberships.
The Kansas City Board of Trade, founded in 1856, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat. This year, the exchange is celebrating its 150-year anniversary.
