Nymex: COMEX Division, Led by Gold Futures, Sets Second Consecutive Monthly Record For Overnight Trading During February

For the second consecutive month, after-hours trading activity in COMEX Division futures contracts and gold futures set volume records on the New York Mercantile Exchange ACCESS® electronic trading platform.

COMEX Division volume on NYMEX ACCESS® totaled 119,203 futures contracts for the month, compared to the previous record of 81,482 contracts set in January. The record prior to January was 61,970 contracts set in October 1999.

Gold futures volume on NYMEX ACCESS® was a record 101,158 contracts in February, surpassing the previous after-hours record of 65,793 contracts in January. The record prior to January was 48,189 contracts also set in October 1999.

Exchange President J. Robert Collins, Jr., said, "The latest trading records are a continuation of the record-shattering activity that we saw in 2002, the best year in Exchange history, with total Exchange volume to-date running 27% ahead of the same period last year. This performance does not include off-Exchange trades posted to the NYMEX ClearPortsm platform, which is seeing accelerating clearing activity."