NYMEX After-Hours Electronic Trading Sets Annual And Monthly Volume Records In October

New annual and monthly volume records were established on the New York Mercantile Exchange ACCESS® after-hours electronic trading system during October. The annual records include: Exchange-wide futures and options trading with 2,106,186 contracts traded by October's end, surpassing the 1,884,052 contracts traded in 1998. Total futures trading with 2,105,230 contracts topping the 1,877,909 contracts traded in1998. NYMEX Division futures and options, which traded 1,824,014 contracts, exceeding the 1,610,114 contracts traded in 1998. NYMEX Division futures trading at 1,823,058 contracts topping the 1,603,971 contracts traded in 1998. Total energy futures trading 1,811,003 contracts which surpassed the 1,598,184 contracts traded in 1998. Crude oil futures with 933,510 contracts traded, as versus the 848,776 contracts traded in 1998. Natural gas futures with 703,224 contracts traded, exceeding the 569,646 contracts traded in 1998. Platinum futures, which traded 11,267 contracts, topping the 5,060 contracts traded in 1998. Palladium futures, which traded 788 contracts, exceeding the 727 contracts traded in 1998. COMEX Division futures, which traded 282,172 contracts, surpassing 273,938 contracts traded in 1998. Gold futures activity at 170,720 contracts exceeding the 149,180 contracts traded in 1998. Copper futures trading with 21,086 contracts surpassing the 14,240 contracts traded in 1998. The monthly volume records include: Exchange-wide futures and options with 293,661 contracts traded, exceeding the 261,391 contracts traded in September 1999. Total futures, which traded 293,440 contracts, surpassing the 261,371 contracts traded in September 1999. NYMEX Division futures, which traded 231,470 contracts, topping the 219,181 contracts traded in September 1999. Total energy futures with 230,426 contracts as versus the 216,273 contracts traded in September 1999. COMEX Division futures, which traded 61,970 contracts, surpassing the 42,190 contracts traded in September 1999. Gold futures trading at 48,189 contracts exceeding the 31,097 contracts traded in September 1999. Exchange President R. Patrick Thompson said, "These records are continued evidence of the explosive growth of our markets. Volume on NYMEX ACCESS® is up 36% over last year, and overall volume is up 17%. The Exchange is on track for a record year for the third year in a row and the 17th of the last 20 years."