Industry News

CME Group Volume Averaged 12.5 Million Contracts per Day in February 2010, Up 17 Percent from February 2009

March 2, 2010

(This Article is from cmegroup.com press release)

-- Highest monthly volume achieved since credit crisis
-- Record foreign exchange volume averaged 931,000 contracts, up 82 percent
-- Record foreign exchange notional value traded averaged $121 billion, up 88 percent
-- Metals volume up 57 percent
-- Interest rates volume up 37 percent
CHICAGO, March 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that February volume averaged 12.5 million contracts per day, up 17 percent from February 2009. Total volume was 238 million contracts for February, of which a record 84 percent was traded electronically. Electronic volume averaged 10.5 million contracts per day, up 23 percent from the prior February. Average daily volume cleared through CME ClearPort was 467,000 contracts for February 2010, down 26 percent compared with February 2009. The rolling three-month ClearPort rate per contract through January is up 9 percent, even though the rolling three-month ClearPort average daily volume is down 2 percent in the same period due to a product mix shift and the wide variance in rate per contract for individual CME ClearPort products.

In February 2010, CME Group interest rate volume averaged 5.7 million contracts per day, up 37 percent compared with the prior February, and up 19 percent sequentially. Treasury futures volume averaged 2.7 million contracts per day, up 55 percent compared with the same period in 2009, 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 versus February 2009, 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, reflecting average daily notional value of approximately $121 billion, an all time record for both daily notional and volume.

CME Group energy volume averaged 1.7 million contracts per day, up 5 percent compared with February 2009. CME Group commodities and alternative investments volume averaged 913,000 contracts per day, up 16 percent from the prior February. CME Group metals volume averaged 338,000 contracts per day, up 57 percent compared with the same period last year.

Average daily volume and rate per contract figures from 2008 have been revised due to standardizing NYMEX reporting conventions to follow CME's treatment of post-trade transactions such as exercises, assignments and deliveries.

All references to CME Group volume and rate per contract information in the text of this document exclude our non-traditional TRAKRS products, for which CME Group receives significantly lower clearing fees than other CME Group products, HuRLO products and credit default swap clearing.

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