For the first time ever in a single month, trading volume on GLOBEX® exceeded 1 million contracts every day in September. GLOBEX volume reached a record 1.2 million contracts daily during the third quarter, up 29 percent over the third quarter of 2002. During the quarter, electronic trading represented 45 percent of total CME volume.
For the month of September, CME volume was 58.6 million contracts, a 25 percent increase from September 2002. Average daily volume for the month was 2.8 million contracts and was up from 2.3 million one year ago. Excluding TRAKRS, CME volume averaged 2.75 million contracts per day, and GLOBEX average daily volume was a record 1.2 million contracts, representing an increase of 38 percent over September 2002 levels. Volume yesterday on GLOBEX excluding TRAKRS reached its second highest level ever, with 1.63 million contracts traded. The underlying value of CME's September volume totalled $29 trillion.
"CME's strong trading volume in the third quarter of 2003 was supported by significant growth in our stock index, foreign exchange and commodity product groups, as well as continued high volume levels in our interest rate products," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "In part due to our ongoing efforts to broaden distribution and connectivity options to GLOBEX, trading volumes in our E-mini™ stock index products, which are traded only electronically, reached an average daily volume record in September of 1.1 million contracts and increased 35 percent over last September, while volumes in our foreign exchange product line, driven by growth in electronic trading, grew 42 percent from the same period in 2002."
"Both in the month of September and in the third quarter, foreign exchange (FX) volume, in particular, demonstrated strong growth," said CME President and Chief Executive Officer Jim McNulty. "During the quarter, our electronic FX volume increased 85 percent above the same period in 2002 and now represents 46 percent of overall FX volume."
"September was an especially strong month for our E-mini stock index products," said Craig Donohue, who will become CEO on Jan. 1, 2004. "During the month, CME's E-mini stock index futures and options increased 35 percent over year-ago levels. We are pleased to note that two of our newer E-mini products-E-mini Russell 2000 futures and E-mini S&P MidCap 400 futures-set single-day volume records on Sept. 30, of 35,067 contracts and 11,091 contracts, respectively."
New all-time monthly volume records were set in September in a number of contracts, including: E-mini NASDAQ-100 futures, at 7,094,951 contracts; Euro FX futures, at 1,112,408 contracts; E-mini Russell 2000 futures, at 433,657; Australian dollar futures at 187,246; and Nikkei 225 futures at 126,836.
Open interest on CME stood at 26.8 million positions on Sept. 30, 2003, 52 percent higher than year-ago levels. During the month, CME set eight consecutive open interest records before reaching an industry record of 29.9 million positions on Sept. 11 prior to regular September quarterly contract expirations. Open interest, representing the number of positions outstanding at the close of trading, is a widely recognized indicator of the level of customer interest in an exchange's products.
Complete volume statistics are available on the CME Web site at www.cme.com.
