Growth In Equity And Index Products Pushes CME September Volume Higher
Date 02/10/1999
Trading activity at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was up in September over the preceding month, with equity and index futures posting their best single month ever.
Also, a growing roster of electronically traded products helped boost volume on the CME's GLOBEX®2 electronic trading system which continued in September to surpass all past trading levels. GLOBEX2 volume for the month totalled 1,660,071 contracts, a 10.9 percent increase from the prior month and a 44.8 percent increase over September 1998 levels. Year-to-date, electronic trading volume was up 63 percent over the same period last year.
Over 5.2 million equity and index futures and options contracts traded during September with all-time monthly records being set in the E-mini S&P 500 at 1,144,191, Nasdaq 100 at 244,458, E-mini Nasdaq 100 at 94,858, and GSCI futures at 91,341. Options on Nasdaq 100 and the E-mini S&P 500 also posted their best September performances ever with respective volumes of 19,677 and 4,333.
Several currency products also posted their best monthly performance, including futures on the Euro FX at 422,761 and the South African rand at 8,533. Currency products posting their best September ever included the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar with total monthly volumes of 105,078 and 3,488 respectively. Lean hog futures and lean hog options also saw record September trading activity with volumes of 190,238 and 20,725.
Total exchange volume of 18,024,011 contracts was 1.3 percent higher than August, though down from year-ago levels when the CME enjoyed its busiest trading month ever.