KCBT Wheat Futures Open Interest Sets New Record, Tops 92,000

Open interest in the Kansas City Board of Trade hard red winter wheat futures contract has set a new record. At the conclusion of Wednesday’s trading, open interest was at 92,776 contracts, breaking the previous record of 91,261 contracts set on June 21, 2001.

The new record represents 463.88 million bushels of wheat compared to the old record of 456.31 million bushels.

"The Kansas City Board of Trade continues to see increased fund participation, expanding open interest levels," explained Greg O’Brien, KCBT chairman, "Also, an increasing number of producers are marketing their wheat."

Traders on the KCBT trading floor also noted that more end-users were extending their coverage well into next year, proliferating open interest in the wheat futures contract.

Wheat futures trading volume has been record-breaking thus far this year. New monthly records were set in February, April and May. Wheat futures volume in February amounted to 345,923 contracts, the largest month ever in exchange history. This represents 1.730 billion bushels of wheat.

Year-to-date trading volume in the KCBT wheat futures contract at the end of July was running ahead of last year by 11.5 compared to the same time period. Exchange year-to-date volume was ahead by 8 percent. Both figures have been increasing steadily each month, putting the KCBT on track to set a new annual volume record for wheat futures and possibly for the exchange as a whole in 2005.

Open interest measures the number of open trading positions in a market. Each KCBT wheat futures contract represents 5,000 bushels of wheat.