About the markets

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) launched the Euro FX futures contract on Jan. 4, 1999 and began offering the contract through its electronic trading system (Globex) in 2001. The Euro futures contract calls for the delivery of 125,000 Euros and is traded in U.S. dollars.

The E-Mini S&P 500 trades on the CME’s Globex system and is priced at 50 times the S&P 500 stock index value. The 10-year Tnote contracts trade on the ECBOT, the Chicago Board of Trade’s electronic trading system. The contract calls for the delivery of one 10-year T-note with a face value of $100,000 at maturity.

Interest has expanded in all three markets, with trading in the Euro showing the greatest percentage growth. The average daily volume for the Euro contract for April 2004 was 63,173 contracts. The average daily volume for March 2005 was 126,039 contracts. By comparison, the average daily volume for the EMini S&P in April 2004 was 713, 936 contracts, vs. 839,889 contracts in March 2005. The average daily volume in April 2004 for the 10-year T-note contract was 686,500, vs. 833,773 contracts in March 2005.