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Strong trading in August led the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX or Exchange) to end its fiscal year with new volume and open interest records in several categories. August 2007 takes over the top spot for monthly spring wheat futures volume and electronic spring wheat futures volume at the Exchange. Spring wheat open interest also reached an all-time high in August.
Electronic trading volume for August was 50,733 contracts, which exceeds the previous monthly volume by nearly 20 percent and is consistent with the steady growth the Exchange has seen in electronic trading. August 2007 replaces last August as the highest monthly trading volume on record for spring wheat futures across both platforms with 213,331 contracts trading, which is a 15-percent increase from last year’s volume of 185,552 contracts. In addition, the Exchange broke its all-time fiscal year volume record for spring wheat futures with 1,584,646 contracts trading versus 1,577,655 contracts last fiscal year.
Volume is not the only thing that increased during the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Hard red spring wheat futures open interest (the number of contracts without an offsetting position) ended the fiscal year at 59,146 contracts, which is 27-percent higher than open interest one year ago and a new all-time high for the Exchange. In addition, membership values increased more than five times reaching a record high in August of $250,000. Membership values are posted at www.mgex.com.
The Exchange’s five financially settled index contracts have generated renewed interest in the marketplace. Dean Kinnas Financial Group is acting as a market maker in the contracts. “These contracts have created a lot of attention in the marketplace and we anticipate significant growth in the next year,” said Nancy Krull, Director, Marketing for the MGEX.
According to MGEX President and CEO Mark G. Bagan, the Exchange is well positioned for continued growth in the coming years. “We’ve taken many proactive steps in recent years to position MGEX for the future, and we believe the tremendous growth we are now experiencing has come in part because of those actions,” he said. “We continue to see new participants in our markets and new investors in the membership market. We have every reason to believe this trend will continue.”
About Minneapolis Grain Exchange
MGEX, established in 1881, is the only market for Hard Red Spring Wheat, National Corn Index (NCI), National Soybean Index (NSI), Hard Red Winter Wheat Index (HRWI), Hard Red Spring Wheat Index (HRSI) and Soft Red Winter Wheat Index (SRWI) futures and options. To learn more about the MGEX visit our website at www.mgex.com.
