Underlying value of the contracts traded in March totaled $23 trillion, while first-quarter underlying value—or dollar volume—reached $66.4 trillion.
Trading volume on CME’s GLOBEX®2 electronic trading system rose 135.5 percent in the first quarter on volume of 16,190,167 compared to 6,875,022 in the first quarter of 2000. In March, GLOBEX2 volume totaled a record 6,628,514, an increase of 154.4 percent over the previous year’s 2,605,863.
All of CME’s four major product groups posted gains in March when compared to previous-year figures, with interest rate volume rising 64.8 percent, equity index volume rising 54.6 percent, currency volume increasing 3.8 percent and agricultural volume rising 3.5 percent.
March was the most active month in CME history for equity index products, with a record 10 million contracts changing hands. In addition, options on Eurodollar futures set a new monthly record of 5.3 million contracts. For all interest rate products, the month was the busiest March ever with 21 million contracts traded, of which 15.5 million were Eurodollar futures, also a March record.
Equity index products that set new monthly volume records included E-mini S&P 500 futures (3.2 million), E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures (2.6 million), Nasdaq-100 futures (650,488), and Russell 2000 futures (85,179). During the month, E-mini index products set frequent daily volume records, reaching 201,555 E-mini S&P 500 futures and 154,293 E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures traded on March 22.
Open interest also set numerous records on CME during March, with exchangewide open interest reaching a record 11.9 million positions on March 15. Open interest is the number of futures and options contracts outstanding at the close of trading each day. Open interest can be seen as a measure of the use of risk management instruments by institutions and individuals with a long-term stake in the markets, as well as the liquidity of a contract.
At month’s end, open interest stood at 10,424,064 positions, an increase of 49.1 percent above year-ago levels.
Setting new open interest highs during March were Eurodollar futures with 4.3 million open positions on March 15, S&P 500 futures with 577,918 open positions on March 15, E-mini S&P 500 futures with 110,421 open positions on March 9, E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures with 105,110 open positions on March 16 and Nasdaq-100 futures with 72,951 open positions on March 13.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is an international marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX2 around-the-clock electronic trading system. CME offers futures contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign currencies and agricultural commodities. On Nov. 13, 2000, CME finalized its transformation into a for-profit, shareholder-owned corporation as it became the first U.S. financial exchange to demutualize by converting its membership interests into shares of common stock that can trade separately from exchange trading privileges. The exchange moves about $1 billion per day in settlement payments, manages $30 billion in collateral deposits and administers more than $1 billion of letters of credit.
