Virtually All Previous Volume/Open Interest Records Shattered In June At The KCBT

June was the largest trading month ever at the Kansas City Board of Trade as new volume records were set for the exchange as a whole, for wheat futures and for wheat options. And, new open interest records were set for wheat futures and wheat options. Entire exchange volume during the month of June amounted to 352,271 contracts, which broke the previous monthly record of 335,203, set in June of 2000, by 5.1 percent. The new record is not only for June, but for any given month.

The new exchange record was spurred by new all-time volume records for the wheat futures and wheat options contracts. The wheat futures volume traded amounted to 309,892 contracts, breaking the previous record of 307,023 contracts, set in June of 2000. Again, this is an all-time record, not only a June record.

Wheat options volume traded during the month of June amounted to 40,663 contracts, breaking the previous monthly record of 32,997 contracts, set only a month ago.

Additionally, new single-day volume records were set for wheat futures and wheat options contracts this month. The new records are 32,024 wheat futures contracts on June 28 and 5,261 wheat options contracts on June 26.

Wheat futures open interest reached an all-time high of 91,261 contracts on June 21, while on the same day, wheat options open interest set a new record of 47,713 contracts.

Total exchange year-to-date volume for 2001 is 8.2 percent ahead of the figure at this point in 2000, with 1,442,326 contracts traded compared to 1,333,399 contracts last year.