Year-to-date, CME volume of 251.4 million contracts resulted in average daily volume of 2.44 million contracts, 21 percent higher than the daily average of 2.01 million contracts traded in the first four months of 2002. In the second quarter to date, average daily volume totalled 2.5 million contracts.
Average daily volume traded via open outcry in May totalled 1.6 million contracts, driven primarily by strength in interest rate trading. An average of more than 1 million contracts were traded electronically and 39,000 contracts were privately negotiated. The underlying value of total May volume was $32.2 trillion; average daily notional value totalled $1.5 trillion.
Among product groups, interest rate product volume in May totalled 30.4 million contracts or an average of 1.45 million per day, compared to an average of more than 1.3 million in May 2002.
Stock index product volume totalled 21.4 million or an average of more than 1 million contracts per day in May, an increase of 52 percent over average daily volume of approximately 672,000 in May 2002.
Foreign exchange (FX) volume totalled 2.7 million contracts in May, averaging nearly 130,000 contracts per day, an increase of more than 41 percent over year-ago levels. Commodity volume totalled approximately 813,000, averaging nearly 39,000 contracts daily, compared to about 28,000 in May 2002.
Open interest on CME stood at 24.7 million positions on May 30, up 36 percent from 18.1 million positions at the end of May 2002. On May 30, open interest in Eurodollar futures and E-mini™ S&P 500 futures stood at record levels of 5.4 million positions and 849,209 positions, respectively. 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. 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 moved about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments in the first quarter of 2003 and managed $28.5 billion in collateral deposits at March 31, 2003. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME).
GLOBEX is a registered trademark of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. E-mini is a trademark of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. S&P, S& 500, S&P MidCap 400, NASDAQ-100, Russell 2000 and other trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks that are not proprietary to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. are the property of their respective owners, and are used herein under license.
