KCBT HRW Wheat Futures Volume Third Largest In Exchange History - New November Volume Records Set For Exchange And HRW Futures

The Kansas City Board of Trade set a new exchange trading volume record for the month of November as a total of 624,481 contracts were traded, breaking the previous record of 472,244 set in 2005 by 32.2 percent. Total exchange volume was 38.9 percent higher than last month. The exchange only needs to trade 48,734 contracts to set a new annual volume record. The current record set in 2006 is 5,287,730 contracts. November volume was the third largest for any given month at the exchange, behind only July and August of this year.

The Hard Red Winter wheat futures contract set a new trading volume record for the month of November as well with 602,081 contracts, breaking the previous record of 441,194 set in 2005 by 36.5 percent. Volume posted gains of 38.9 percent compared to last month. A new HRW wheat futures annual volume record was set on November 12, breaking the previous record of 4,763,168 set in 2006. That record has now been exceeded by 7.3 percent. November HRW volume was the third largest for any given month at the exchange, behind only July and August of this year.

Wheat options trading volume was robust in November, posting a 168.4 percent gain compared to November 2009 and 15 percent compared to last month.

Open interest in the HRW wheat futures set several new open interest records during the month of November, topping out at 250,506 contracts on November 11. Before this month’s run-up, the previous record was 236,543 contracts set on October 28.

At month’s end, wheat futures open interest was 55.9 percent higher than at the end of November 2009. Wheat options open interest gained 97.2 percent compared to the end of November 2009. Open interest measures the number of open trading positions in a market. Each KCBT wheat futures contract represents 5,000 bushels of wheat.

Year-to-date volume for the HRW wheat futures contract is running 48 percent ahead of last year at this time. Exchange volume is running 47.2 percent ahead of last year at this time.

The Kansas City Board of Trade, founded in 1856, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat. Daily quotes, market commentary, historical data and charting services are available on our website at www.kcbt.com