The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the world’s largest derivatives exchange, says that February volume averaged 6.0 million contracts per day, up 27 percent from February 2006. Total monthly volume was 115 million contracts.
Volume on the CME Globex electronic trading platform increased 40 percent from February 2006 to average a record 4.6 million contracts per day, representing 76 percent of total exchange volume. Total options volume was 1.2 million contracts per day, up 4 percent from February 2006. Electronic options volume averaged 162,000 contracts per day for the month, up 104 percent from the same period a year ago, and represented 13 percent of total CME options volume.
CME total interest rate volume averaged 3.5 million contracts, up 22 percent from the same period a year ago. CME Eurodollar futures volume averaged a record 2.4 million contracts per day, up 36 percent from February 2006, and CME Eurodollar options volume was down 2 percent to an average of 1.0 million contracts per day. Electronic volume of CME Eurodollar options averaged 83,000 contracts per day, up 62 percent from February 2006, and represented 8 percent of total Eurodollar options volume.
CME E-mini index volume averaged 1.8 million contracts per day in February, up 37 percent compared with February 2006. Total equity options volume grew to 155,000 contracts per day, u97 percent from the same period a year ago. During the month, CME set records in the E-mini S&P 500 with 60,000 contracts per day, the E-mini Russell 2000 Options with 8,000 per day and the E-mini NASDAQ 100 Options with 5,500 per day. CME equity standard volume grew 24 percent to average 150,000 contracts per day.
CME foreign exchange volume in February averaged 508,000 per day, up 38 percent compared with February 2006. Electronic foreign exchange volume averaged 457,000 contracts per day, up 45 percent compared with the year-ago period.