Total November volume of 44.2 million contracts was three percent lower than November 2001, which included one additional business day. CME average daily volume in November totaled more than 2.2 million contracts, compared to slightly less than 2.2 million contracts in November 2001. Average daily volume for the first 11 months of 2002 totaled 2.2 million contracts, up from 1.6 million contracts during the same period in 2001.
Electronic trading volume in November totaled 19.2 million contracts, an increase of 116 percent over year-ago levels. GLOBEX average daily volume in November was 959,091 contracts, compared to 422,341 in November 2001. Year-to-date GLOBEX average daily volume totaled 775,027, up from 323,900 in 2001.
The underlying value of CME trading volume in November totaled $23.2 trillion.
Trading volume for stock index products was higher than any previous November, at 20.1 million contracts traded, including November records of 11.1 million contracts for E-mini™ S&P 500 futures, 4.8 million E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contracts and 125,646 E-mini Russell 2000 futures.
Among foreign exchange (FX) products, new November records were set in Canadian dollar futures at 220,039, Euro FX options at 68,782, South African rand futures at 4,852 and New Zealand dollar futures at 4,362 contracts. An all-time monthly record was set at 2,303 contracts in Euro/British pound cross-rate futures.
Other futures contracts surpassing any previous November included milk futures, at 8,638 contracts, and heating degree day futures at 507 contracts.
Open interest on CME stood at 22.1 million positions, up 21 percent from year-ago levels. On Nov. 14, CME open interest on CME reached a record 23.2 million positions. 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 contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moves about $1.7 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $27.7 billion in collateral deposits. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.
