Record Open Interest In Minneapolis Grain Exchange Hard Winter Wheat Index (HWI) Futures And Options

Open interest in Hard Winter Wheat Index (HWI) futures and options, traded at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) since May 9, 2003, reached a record 3,243 contracts at the end of the trading day on Friday, October 24, 2003. Open interest is the number of open positions held at the end of the day by market participants in all contract months and is a measure of a market's liquidity. Of the 3,243 HWI contracts, 1,286 were futures and 1,957 were options.

In addition, HWI futures and options volume recorded daily highs with 392 futures and 405 options contracts trading on October 24. Volume remained steady at the end of trading day on Monday, October 27, 2003 with 237 futures and 130 options contracts.

HWI futures and options, traded on the Exchange's electronic platform, MGEXpress®, are the first financially settled wheat futures and options traded in the U.S. The settlement index, the Hard Winter Wheat Index (HWI), is a simple average of approximately 400 country elevator bids collected daily by Data Transmission Network (DTN), an Omaha-based electronic commerce and information services company.

HWI futures and options contracts settle financially each calendar month to a three-day average of the spot Hard Winter Wheat Index. DTN collects elevator bids daily for hard red winter wheat and averages them to arrive at the HWI. The contracts reflect country-origin pricing for hard red winter wheat. Because there is no delivery alternative, futures and options contracts expire simultaneously.

Trading hours for HWI futures and options are as follows:

• Morning session: 8:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. (Central Time)
• Afternoon session: 2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. (Central Time).

MGEX, established in 1881, is the only market for hard red spring wheat, Hard Winter Wheat Index (HWI), National Corn Index (NCI) and National Soybean Index (NSI) futures and options. www.mgex.com