The CBOE Futures Exchange, LLC (CFE) today announced that March 2010 was the second busiest trading month ever at the Exchange as a total of 217,429 contracts changed hands. For the month, trading volume was up 333 percent when compared to 50,271 contracts in March 2009 and up 16 percent from 188,236 contracts in February 2010. In the six-year history of CFE, March's trading volume trailed only the 221,025 contracts during January 2010.
The 9,453 contracts traded per day during March was 314 percent above the year-ago average daily volume (ADV) of 2,285 contracts, and when compared to the 9,907 contracts per day during the previous month, ADV during March was down five percent. March 2010's ADV ranked in the top five all-time monthly ADV at CFE.
For the first three months of 2010, a total of 626,690 contracts traded, making the first quarter of 2010 the busiest quarter on record at CFE. The previous high had been the 513,607 contracts traded during the fourth quarter of 2009.
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CBOE FUTURES EXCHANGE VOLUME SUMMARY Current Month |
Year-To-Date |
|||||||
|
|
March 2010 |
March 2009 |
% Chg |
February 2010 |
% Chg |
March 2010 |
March 2009 |
% Chg |
|
Trading Days |
23 |
22 |
19 |
61 |
61 |
|||
|
Total Exchange |
217,429 |
50,271 |
+333% |
188,236 |
+16% |
626,690 |
132,732 |
+372% |
|
Total Exchange ADV |
9,453 |
2,285 |
+314% |
9,907 |
-5% |
10,274 |
2,176 |
+372% |
Volume in VIX futures, based on the CBOE Volatility Index (ticker VX), totaled 216,800 contracts traded, a gain of 357 percent from 47,446 contracts in March 2009 and 15 percent from the 187,725 contracts in February. Average daily volume in VIX futures during March was 9,426 contracts, compared to 2,157 contracts per day a year ago and 9,880 contracts from the previous month.
CBOE mini-VIX futures (ticker symbol VM) celebrated their one-year anniversary in March as volume totaled 623 contracts, a gain of 23 percent from the 505 contracts traded in February and a loss of 71 percent from 2,165 contracts traded a year ago. CBOE mini-VIX futures contracts are one-tenth the size of CFE's standard CBOE VIX futures contract. Additional information on mini-VIX futures can be found at: http://cfe.cboe.com/Products/Products_VM.aspx.
CFE currently offers futures on four different contracts, including: the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), CBOE mini-VIX (VM), CBOE S&P 500 3-Month Variance (VT) and CBOE S&P 500 12-Month Variance (VA).
CFE, launched in March 2004, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated, offering an all-electronic, open-access market model, with traders providing liquidity and making markets. CFE trades are cleared by the AAA-rated Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). CBOE Futures Exchange is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
More information on CFE and its products, including contract specifications, can be found at: www.cboe.com/CFE.
