Deutsche Borse says October was the most successful month in Eurex history to date: With 86.5 million contracts traded, the international derivatives market set a new record (previous record: 83.6 million contracts in September 2002). Compared with October 2001 (63.7 million contracts), trading volume at Eurex rose 36 percent. After just 10 months of trading, the derivatives market has already turned over 684 million contracts, surpassing the total volume traded in all of 2001 (674 million contracts) by 10 million contracts well before the end of the current year.
In October, Eurex posted turnover records in individual products and product groups: A total of more than 50 million capital market contracts were traded at Eurex for the first time (October 2001: 37 million contracts). This corresponds to a 35 percent increase compared with October 2001. Eurex set new turnover records in all three capital market futures: Over 20 million contracts were traded in the Euro-Bund future for the first time (previous record: 19.9 million contracts in September 2002). This represents more than 30 percent growth compared with the October 2001 volume (15.7 million contracts traded). The Schatz future was at record levels with 12.7 million contracts traded (11.7 million contracts in November 2001) and the second-strongest product at Eurex. The October volume in this contract was 56 percent higher than the volume traded during the same month last year. The Euro-Bobl future beat its record from the month before (12.2 million contracts) and topped the October 2001 volume by about 42 percent, increasing to 12.4 million contracts traded. The option on the Schatz also set a new record with some 2 million contracts traded in October, beating its previous record of 1.8 million contracts traded in November 2001.
Equity-based derivatives showed turnover of more than 36 million contracts in October, comprising 22.9 million contracts in equity index derivatives and 13.3 million contracts in equity options. A new record was set in this segment with 5.4 million contracts traded in options on the DJ Euro STOXX 50, surpassing the previous record set in July 2002 as well as the October 2001 volume by 113 percent. In 2002, a total of 296 million equity-based derivative contracts have been traded at Eurex to date, 174.7 million contracts in equity index derivatives and 121.5 million contracts in equity options. The strongest equity option at Eurex in October was the option on SAP with some 1.9 million contracts traded, many times higher than the volume posted in October 2001.