On April 12, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) set a new volume record in its Euro FX futures (EC) of 211,929 contracts, representing a notional value of $34.3 billion. The previous record for Euro FX futures was 210,094 contracts, set on Dec. 8, 2004. The portion of Euro FX futures traded on the exchange’s Globex electronic trading platform was also a record at 199,201 contracts.
In addition, traders showed some interest in the CME’s new European style Euro FX and Japanese yen options, which were launched earlier this month. Open interest in the yen options was 1,537 contracts and 467 for the Euro FX options. (Open interest reflects the number of contracts that have not yet been offset.)
Global futures and options trading reached 8.89 billion contracts in 2004, according to data gathered by the Futures Industry Association from 61 exchanges worldwide. Total volume in 2004 increased 8.9 percent (728.2 million contracts) from the previous year.
Volume rose in all sectors of the market, but the category with the greatest percentage increase was trading in foreign currencies. In 2004, volume in this category surged 35.4 percent to 105.4 million contracts worldwide.
The largest contract in this category was the Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futuros’ U.S. dollar futures contract, which was up 42.7 percent to 23.9 million contracts for the year. The CME’s Euro FX future almost doubled, up 82.7 percent to 20.5 million contracts.
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