On March 31, 2005 total volume in all futures and options contracts traded on the Exchange set it highest daily volume record since WCE converted to an electronic trading platform. There were 20,814 futures and options contracts traded on that day.
Volume of trade in Western Barley futures contracts marked a record daily total volume for that contract on March 31, 2005.
There were 11,954 Western Barley futures contracts traded on that date, 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.
Crop year-to-date total volume on Winnipeg Commodity Exchange Inc. was 1.4% lower than a year ago at 1,367,357 futures and options contracts.
At the end of March 2005, trade in futures for the crop year-to-date was unchanged at 1,355,015 contracts, while activity in the options market declined 59.5% to 12,342 contracts. There have been 1,160,236 canola futures contracts traded since August 1, 2004. This level of trade is close to that recorded a year ago. Western Barley crop yeato-date volume is 132,261 futures contracts, representing a slight decrease from the level of a year ago. Feed wheat trade for the crop year-to-date is 22.4% higher than a year ago with 62,448 contracts traded.
During March 2005 there were 141,717 canola futures contracts and 1,028 canola options contracts traded. Feed wheat futures volume for the month was 8,748 contracts. The Western Barley futures contract volume for March 2005 was 19,849 contracts, representing increases in trade of 55.3% from March 2004 and 63.1% from February 2005. At the end of March open interest in WCE futures contracts stood at 84,263 contracts and there were 4,117 options contracts outstanding.
