Derivatives Trading Volumes Surge at ICE, CME
March 2, 2010
IntercontinentalExchange said Tuesday it achieved record volume of trading in futures contracts in February, beating its previous monthly record by 6%, while the derivatives marketplace operator CME Group said its trading in futures and options was up 17 percent in February, compared to a year ago.
ICE, which operates futures exchanges, clearing houses and over-the-counter markets, said total futures volume in February 2010 reached 26 million contracts. Its previous high-water mark was September 2009, when it handled 24.5 million contracts.
Average daily volume was 1.4 million, up 39% compared a year earlier. ICE said that represented a second straight monthly record in average daily volume.
ICE Futures Europe alsoe set a monthly volume record of 17.0 million contacts, and its second consecutive average daily volume record with 893,151 contracts, up 46% from February 2009. Average dail.y volume in the U.S. was 458,107 contracts
CME Group, which operates the CME Globex electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago, said its total volume in Febuary was 238 million contracts. A record 85 percent of these were traded electronically, it said.
CME, whose acronym stems from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, said its average volume in February reached 12.5 million contracts a day, up 17 percent from a year ago. Electronic volume averaged 10.5 million contracts per day, up 23 percent.
Average daily volume cleared through CME ClearPort was 467,000 contracts for February 2010, down 26 percent compared with February 2009.
CME Group interest rate volume averaged 5.7 million contracts per day, up 37 percent compared with February 2009. Treasury futures volume averaged 2.7 million contracts per day, up 55 percent, and Treasury options volume averaged 273,000 contracts per day, up 14 percent. Eurodollar futures volume averaged 2.0 million contracts per day, up 28 percent, while Eurodollar options volume averaged 615,000 contracts per day, up 6 percent.
CME Group equity index volume averaged 3.0 million contracts per day, down 14 percent from February 2009, but up 3 percent from January 2010. CME Group foreign exchange (FX) volume averaged 931,000 contracts per day, up 82 percent compared with the same period a year ago.
