“The year 2000 marked a truly monumental year for Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.,” CME Chairman Scott Gordon said. “Our all-time record trading volume indicates that we positioned ourselves well in this time of significant competition and unprecedented change.”
“The underlying value of transactions on CME last year—representing more than $155 trillion—demonstrates the significant service we provided as we took on a new for-profit corporate structure and crafted our business plan to focus on customers and shareholder value,” CME President and CEO Jim McNulty said.
Monthly trading volume for December was higher than any previous December in CME history. Reaching 22.8 million contracts, the monthly total surpassed December 1999 by 61.4 percent. Equity index products set both new annual and December records: 2000 volume of 65.1 million surpassed 1999 volume of 48.1 million by 35.3 percent, while December’s volume of 6.6 million was 49.8 percent higher than December 1999.
Interest rate product volume was higher than any previous December, reaching 13.6 million and surpassing the previous December’s 7.2 million by 87.2 percent. Total interest rate volume in 2000 reached 138.8 million, an increase of 15.5 percent over 1999. Currency and agricultural product volume in 2000 totaled 19.3 million and 8 million, respectively, representing declines of 19.5 and 6.6 percent from 1999 levels. Euro FX currency futures set an all-time monthly volume high of 466,719 in December.
Annual volume records were set by E-mini S&P 500 futures at 19.2 million, E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures at 10.8 million and Nasdaq 100 futures at 5.1 million contracts—all of which set December volume records as well. S&P MidCap 400 futures set an all-time monthly volume record in December of 59,504 contracts, and Russell 2000 futures set a new December mark at 71,886.
Open interest, or the number of contracts outstanding at the close of the year, stood at 8,020,625—25.1 percent higher than the 6.4 million open positions at the end of December 1999.
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 $20 billion in collateral deposits and administers more than $1 billion of letters of credit.
