“Market fundamentals, a favorable investment climate for commodities, the move back to Lower Manhattan and a lot of hard work have all contributed to a historic year for our Exchange,” said Frederick W. Schoenhut, NYBOT Chairman. “We are proud of the Exchange’s success in 2004 and our continuous record of service to our expanding global marketplace; the New York Board of Trade looks forward to another year of growth in 2005.”
NYBOT’s largest market, World Sugar, led the way, setting new annual records in both futures and options. Bull markets for the Coffee “C”® and Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice (FCOJ) contracts contributed to the surge in volume. Coffee established new annual high marks in futures and options, and OJ options rang up a new annual benchmark. The Sugar No. 11sm and the Coffee contracts also achieved all time open interest records in both futures and options. Sizeable gains in the currency products and index markets were fueled by record activity in futures and options on the Russell 1000® Index and the US Dollar Index® (USDX®).
All of the NYBOT futures markets enjoyed growth this year. The 2004 total futures volume grew 27% over 2003, with Ag futures up 26%, Currency futures rising 33%, and Index products increasing 35%.
NYBOT’s options markets also fared well, with total options volume rising 29%, the Ag options up 28%, Currency Options jumping 84%, and the Index options increasing 65%.
“I’d like to thank all the different groups and individuals who made 2004 such a successful year for the Exchange,” said Charles H. “Harry” Falk, NYBOT’s President and CEO. “From our traditional market users to the new investors, as well as the many NYBOT Members, Staff and our Board, they all have contributed to this historic achievement.”
Some individual product increases over the 2003 record year include:
- FCOJ: FCOJ futures jumped 49% and the options were up 184%.
- Coffee: Coffee “C” futures had a 31% increase, the options also saw a 48% rise.
- Sugar: Sugar No. 11 futures trading rose 37% and options 69%.
- Cocoa: Cocoa futures were up 12%.
- Cotton: Cotton No. 2SM futures had a 4% increase.
- USDX: The US Dollar Index futures market was up 33% and the options 94%.
- Russell 1000 Index: Trading in the futures contract rose 42% and the options climbed 70%.
- Merger: On June 10, 2004, the Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange, Inc. (CSCE – founded in 1882), and the New York Cotton Exchange (NYCEâ – founded in 1870), officially became one exchange – the Board of Trade of the City of New York, Inc., or more popularly, the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT). This was the completion of a six-year merger process that began on June 10, 1998.
- Seat Prices: Seat prices at the Exchange broke new ground at NYBOT as well, with the all-time high of $307,000 for a full seat established on December 14, 2004. NYBOT full seat values were at the $200,000 level at the end of June 2004.
- eCOPS®: NYBOT’s fully electronic commodity delivery system, which went live in January 2004, hit a high water mark on June 17, 2004, by issuing 19,969 Electronic Warehouse Receipts (EWRs) covering 4,646,912 bags of Arabica coffee, worth approximately $586,254,417. This mark reached 4,979,075 bags of coffee in mid-October. Cocoa will be the next product to begin using eCOPS. The system has also developed a new and exclusive web service (eCOPSLink) to allow users easier access and a universal link for eCOPS to their back office systems.
- NYBOTLive: Market watchers and users can now access pricing information directly from the trading floor. NYBOTLive, the Exchange’s unique real-time market data service which provides product prices and a package of support capabilities directly over the Internet, has seen the number of its real-time and delayed subscribers triple in 2004.
- NYBOT Grading: After opening in Lower Manhattan on October 29, 2003, the NYBOT Grading facility quickly resumed its place as the premier coffee and cocoa grading facility. The state-of-the-art facility is now the largest green coffee and cocoa grading operation in the U.S. Coffee grading volume in 2004 was one of the most active with 3 million bags being graded, the equivalent of 450 million pounds of coffee, equal to 12,000 bags or 1.8 million pounds graded for each business day in 2004.
- Other Support Services: The Exchange continues to expand services to the underlying industries represented in the NYBOT marketplace, providing full administrative support in its 39 Broadway location for the Green Coffee Association (GCA), a major coffee trade organization, and this year adding the Cocoa Merchants of America Association (CMAA), a leading cocoa trade group.
- Currency/Index Products: As part of the growth in financial products, NYBOT’s currency marketplace launched in February 2004, four new currency-paired futures contracts. The contracts, which are smaller versions of existing currency products at NYBOT, are the Small U.S. dollar–Canadian dollar, the Small U.S. dollar-Japanese yen, the Small U.S. dollar-Swiss franc, and the small British pound-U.S. dollar contracts. Additionally, new currency futures and option contracts based on the Norwegian krone–Swedish krona were also launched in May 2004. Finally, the Russell 2000® Growth and Russell 2000® Value, the style versions of the Russell 2000 Index of small cap U.S. equities, began trading in NYBOT’s Equity Index marketplace in September.
- Other New Products: In December, NYBOT announced it would launch a Pulp Futures contract on February 11, 2005, with the Options on Pulp Futures contract to follow on February 14. Pulp is a natural plant material that is used to make a wide range of products such as paper and paperboard. In May 2004, NYBOT started trading the World Ethanol futures contract, which offers a hedging and investing tool for the burgeoning ethanol industry; NYBOT is currently studying revisions to the contract.
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 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.
