Open interest at month's end totaled 18.2 million positions, an all-time record.
November volume represents a152 percent increase over year-ago levels, while year-to-date trading volume of 379 million contracts is 82 percent higher than the same period in 2000. The underlying value of trading in November represented a record $34 trillion.
Volume in CME's four major product areas has risen year-to-date, with interest rate volume up 102 percent at 253.1 million contracts, equity indexes up 67 percent at 97.7 million contracts, foreign exchange up 16 percent at 20.1 million contracts and commodity products up 9.8 percent at 8 million contracts.
Volume on CME's GLOBEX®* electronic trading system rose 143 percent in November over year-ago levels to 8,869,166. Year-to-date electronic volume on CME totaled 75,144,739, an increase of 143 percent over the previous year-to-date volume of 30.9 million contracts.
Interest rate products led the volume surge in November, with a record 32.6 million contracts traded, including a record 21.2 million Eurodollar futures and 11.3 million options on Eurodollar futures.
Equity index product volume set a record for any November, with 10.2 million contracts changing hands, including November records for E-mini S&P 500 futures at 4.3 million, E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures at 3.3 million and Nasdaq-100 futures at 416,722. Among foreign exchange products, Euro FX futures set a November record at 482,722 contracts, as did Canadian dollar futures at 218,108 and Euro FX options at 53,793.
Commodity products setting new highs for any November included feeder cattle futures at 61,344, feeder cattle options on futures at 16,614 and milk futures at 3,797 contracts.
During the month, CME had the busiest day in its history when 3,327,358 contracts were traded on Nov. 15. Volume on CME has surpassed 3 million contracts four times in its history, three of them occurring last month. The second busiest day in CME history was Nov. 27, when 3,277,574 contracts were traded.
Open interest is the number of contracts outstanding at the close of trading. CME's open interest of 18.2 million at month's end represents a 114 percent increase over year-ago levels.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is an international marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX® around-the-clock electronic trading system. 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 $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $30.1 billion in collateral deposits.
