A total of 20,814 futures and options contracts were traded today with the bulk of volume taking place in Western Barley futures contracts. The previous highest total daily volume recorded under the electronic trading platform was 17,254 contracts, which was recorded on February 22, 2005.
Today’s trade in Western Barley futures contracts marks a record daily total volume for that contract. There were 11,954 Western Barley futures contracts traded, almost exclusively in spread trade activity. The previous highest daily volume for Western Barley was 4,893 contracts which took place on October 31, 1996.
Daily volume records were posted for the May and July Western Barley futures contracts which recorded volumes of 5,931 contracts and 5,845 contracts respectively. The previous daily volume record for a May Western Barley futures contract was 2,158 on January 31, 2005, and the previous daily volume record for a July Western Barley futures contract was 2,045 on May 2, 2001. The May 2005 Western Barley futures contract has recorded a new daily volume record for any Western Barley futures contract, which previously was set at 3,023 futures contracts in the March Western Barley futures contract on March 1, 2000.
Winnipeg Commodity Exchange Inc., established in 1887, has been facilitating futures contract trading since 1904. WCE is Canada’s only agricultural futures and options exchange and the first commodity futures and options exchange in North America to fully convert from open outcry to electronic trading. WCE offers futures and options contracts on canola, flaxseed, domestic feed wheat, and western barley. For more information on the Exchange, visit www.wce.ca
