KCBT Wheat Futures Surpass All Previous Annual Trading Volume Records

Active trade in yesterday's (November 3) Kansas City Board of Trade wheat futures contracts pushed annual trading volume to record-breaking levels. At the conclusion of yesterday's trade 2,010,316 contracts or 10.051 billion bushels had traded thus far in 1999. The previous record was set just last year, at 2,006,779 contracts or 10.033 billion bushels. Nearly two months remain to build on the record for this year. Traders attribute the activity to several factors: large hedged inventories; the market is close to a full carry situation, which means that people can roll to the next contract month at tight spreads; and an increase in activity by managed money, or funds, which are increasingly entering the Kansas City market as they are impressed by the lack of slippage and good execution of orders. This marks the sixth year in a row that the KCBT has set a new annual volume record in wheat futures. It also appears the KCBT is on track to set an all-exchange volume record this year; the previous record of 2,296,273 contracts was set in 1997. KCBT wheat options trading set a new annual volume record on September 23 of this year. To date, 127,095 contracts have traded; last year, 112,825 contracts were traded. This is the third year in a row that wheat options have set an annual record.