NYBOT October 2005 YTD Volume Nearly Tops 2004 Total Yearly Volume

The total volume for the first ten months of 2005 at the New York Board of Trade® (NYBOT®) of 31,466,124 combined futures and options contracts is just 263,467 contracts shy of the all-time yearly volume record of 31,729,591 combined futures and options contracts traded in all of 2004. Total futures trading of 24,219,766 contracts through October of 2005 has already shattered the historic annual mark of 23,955,212 set in 2004.

At the end of October, total volume for NYBOT was running 18% of the same period in 2004 (31,466,124 vs. 26,708,148). Total futures volume was up 20% and total options climbed 11% (both YTD). Currency futures trading has surged 47% ahead of last year (YTD), a whopping 118% month-to-month expansion (October 2005 vs. October 2004). Agricultural commodity futures are up 18% and Equity Index options trading this year is up more than 33% (YTD).

“These recent trading volume increases exhibit the vibrant growth and liquidity our global markets possess,” said Joe O’Neill, NYBOT SVP of Marketing. “Hedgers and investors in growing numbers are turning to the New York Board of Trade, not only for our premier soft commodity markets but for our increasingly active financial products such as the US Dollar Index and the Russell Equity Indices.”

Some October 2005 (YTD) individual product volume increases include:

Sugar No. 11sm futures (symbol SB) volume was up 30%, and the options rose 11%.
Cotton No. 2sm futures (symbol CT) jumped 23%.
Cocoa options (symbol CC) were up 32% and the futures rose 9%.
The U.S. Dollar Index® futures (symbol DX®) leaped 50%.

The New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) is New York’s original futures exchange, where the world trades food, fiber and financial products. For well over a century, the New York Board of Trade has provided reliability, integrity and security in a global marketplace for cocoa, coffee, cotton, ethanol, orange juice, pulp and sugar, as well as currency and index futures and options. Information about the New York Board of Trade can be found at www.nybot.com and www.nybotlive.com.