For the first quarter of 2003, trading volume totaled 146.4 million contracts or an average of 2.4 million per day. Quarterly volume rose 22 percent compared to the first quarter of 2002. Electronic trading on GLOBEX totaled 64.8 million contracts, averaging 1.1 million contracts daily-113 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2002. In the first quarter, 44 percent of CME's trading volume was electronic and 54 percent was open outcry; 2.4 million contracts, or 39,000 per day representing 1.6 percent, were privately negotiated. In 2002, a record year for CME, average daily volume was 2.2 million contracts, and 35 percent of the volume was electronic.
"As our trading volumes demonstrate, the world comes to CME to manage risk," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "In these times of turbulence, our markets play a critical role in helping institutions, corporations and individuals manage their risk. Volume in stock index and foreign exchange products increased this quarter, with foreign exchange futures setting a new all-time monthly record in March at more than 3.1 million contracts."
"Because our financial products trade virtually around the clock on our GLOBEX electronic trading platform, CME is a significant venue for traders reacting to news events at any time, particularly for accessing U.S. equity markets," said Jim McNulty, CME President and Chief Executive Officer. "This around-the-clock availability for E-mini™ stock index products helped volume reached its highest level ever in March, averaging more than one million contracts a day. Additionally, interest rate volume rose to 1.3 million per day in March, up considerably from its recent monthly low of about 700,000 in December 2002. We saw some particularly strong days on our GLOBEX Eagle engine, with average daily volume of more than 42,000 and peaking at more than 90,000 contracts."
The notional, or underlying dollar value of transactions on CME in March represented $30.4 trillion in asset allocation and risk management activity. Average daily notional value totaled $1.4 trillion.
Among product groups, foreign exchange (FX) product volume averaged 160,009 contracts in March compared to 122,805 in 2002; in the first quarter FX average daily volume of 126,535 compared to 96,032 in the first quarter of 2002. The FX futures volume record of 3.1 million included new all-time records in Euro FX futures at 977,919, Canadian dollar futures at 475,496 and Australian dollar futures at 172,785 contracts.
E-mini S&P MidCap 400 futures and E-mini Russell 2000 futures set all-time monthly records at 113,081 and 197,414 contracts, respectively. On March 13, E-mini S&P 500 futures volume exceeded one million contracts for the first time in a single day. Stock index product volume rose 108 percent from 12.6 million contracts in March 2002 to 26.3 million contracts.
Commodity product volume rose 11 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2002. Electronically traded lean hog futures contracts set a new monthly volume record at 7,445 contracts.
Open interest on CME stood at 21.1 million positions on March 31, up 39 percent from 15.2 million positions at the end of March 2002. Open interest represents the number of futures and options on futures contracts outstanding at the close of trading each day.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.(www.cme.com) is the largest futures exchange in the United States and the second largest exchange in the world for the trading of futures and options on futures. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX around-the-clock electronic trading platform. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moves an average of about $1.8 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $27.4 billion in collateral deposits. On Dec. 6, 2000, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME) and its CME subsidiary became the first publicly traded financial exchange.
