March was a record-setting month for derivatives trading in Chicago, with the CBOE Futures Exchange experiencing the most active trading month in its history and the clearing of credit default swaps at CME Group setting a monthly volume record of $53.3 billion cleareda 344% increase over the previous record set in February.
Nearly two million contracts were traded on the exchange, an increase of 85% over the volume in March 2011. The average daily volume of 89,620 contracts represented a 93% increase over the previous year. The CBOE Futures Exchange says it has experienced annual increases in volumes in six out of the past seven years.
In March, CME Group also surpassed the $500 billion mark in notional value cleared in OTC interest rate swaps (IRS) and credit default swaps (CDS). Laurent Paulhac, managing director for OTC Products & Services at CME Group, says the record numbers represent an increasing interest among buy-side firms in clearing their OTC trades ahead of the Dodd-Frank requirement that most derivatives be cleared.
Not all volumes in the Windy City were up, however. Cleared contract volume at Chicago-based clearinghouse OCC declined 10% year-on-year in March. Exchange-listed options trading volume decreased 10% from March 2011, while cleared futures volumes dropped 18%. It is unusual to see volumes drop at OCC, which had been setting record volumes in the latter half of last year as volumes spiked in the midst of market volatility.
Securities lending in OCCs stock loan program, however, rose 18% over March 2011.
(CG)