The Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced that its average daily volume in February was 4.7 million contracts, up 26% from the same period a year ago, with a total monthly volume of more than 90 million contracts.
Average daily volume on the CME Globex electronic trading platform increased 30% from the same period a year ago to 3.2 million contracts per day, representing 68% of total exchange trading. Overall total options reached a record 1.2 million contracts per day, up 44% compared to February 2005. Electronic options trading continued to gain momentum as average daily volumes increased to 79,000, up from 19,000 in February 2005.
CME total interest rate volume was 2.9 million contracts per day in February, up 27% from the same period a year ago. This increase was driven by continued growth in CME Eurodollar options, up 42% to a record 1.1 million contracts per day in February. Electronic average daily volume of CME Eurodollar options for February was five times the average during February 2005, reaching 51,000 contracts per day. CME Eurodollar futures grew 20% to 1.8 million contracts per day. Electronic CME Eurodollar futures averaged 1.5 million contracts per day in February, up 33%.
Average daily volume of CME foreign exchange products was 368,000 contracts, a 38% increase compared with February 2005. During the month, electronic foreign exchange products increased 50% from the same period a year ago to 315,000 contracts per day.
Trading in CME E-mini(TM) equity index products averaged 1.3 million contracts per day in February, an increase of 19% compared with the same period last year. CME E-mini options average daily volume in February increased 174% month over month, averaging 28,000 contracts per day.
CME total commodity volume reached 57,000 contracts per day in February, up 32% over the same period a year ago. Commodity volume traded on the CME Globex platform in February increased 11% compared to the prior year.
All statistics in this news release exclude data on CME’s non-traditional TRAKRS(TM) products, and CME Auction Markets(TM) products, unless otherwise noted.