LIFFE Trades £175 Billion A Day In October 1999

The average daily nominal value of contracts traded on the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) was £175 billion (273 billion) during October 1999 and the total nominal value traded for the month was £3,679 billion (5,758 billion). Hugh Freedberg, LIFFE's Chief Executive, said "Total exchange open interest, a key indicator of liquidity and long term use of the market, was up 7% on September 1999, at over six million contracts. As we approach the year-end we expect to see a decline in volumes generally as activity across all markets reduces ahead of Y2K. LIFFE's equity and commodity products have increased in volume over the first ten months of 1999, respectively by 25% and 14%, compared to the same period in 1998." From January to October 1999 a total of 103,365,632 contracts were traded at LIFFE, with a total value of 69,750 billion traded, year-to-date.