CME Group Volume Averaged 11.9 Million Contracts Per Day in April 2010, Up 31 Percent

CHICAGO, May 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that April volume averaged 11.9 million contracts per day, up 31 percent from April 2009, and represented the highest year-over-year growth since January 2008.  Total volume was 263 million contracts for April, of which 84 percent was traded electronically.  

In April 2010, CME Group interest rate volume averaged 5.6 million contracts per day, up 69 percent compared with the prior April, and represented the highest year-over-year growth for the past several years.  Treasury futures volume averaged 2.0 million contracts per day, up 82 percent compared with the same period in 2009, and Treasury options volume averaged 265,000 contracts per day, up 16 percent.  Eurodollar futures volume averaged 2.4 million contracts per day, up 68 percent versus April 2009, while Eurodollar options volume averaged 841,000 contracts per day, up 64 percent.  

CME Group equity index volume averaged 2.6 million contracts per day, down 15 percent from April 2009.  CME Group foreign exchange (FX) volume averaged 842,000 contracts per day, up 87 percent compared with the same period a year ago, reflecting average daily notional value of $110 billion.  On April 29, FX volume hit a new record with 1,476,662 contracts traded, reflecting notional value of $193 billion.

CME Group energy volume averaged a record 1.7 million contracts per day, up 33 percent compared with April 2009, driven primarily by all time record volume for WTI and refined products.  Record WTI futures and options volume averaged 960,000 contracts per day, up 56 percent, while refined products averaged a record 267,000 contracts in April, up 50 percent versus April 2009.  CME Group commodities and alternative investments volume averaged 894,000 contracts per day, up 12 percent from the prior April.  CME Group metals volume averaged 260,000 contracts per day, up 58 percent compared with the same period last year.      

Open outcry volume averaged 1.4 million contracts in April, up 24 percent versus April 2009.  Electronic volume averaged 10.0 million contracts per day, up 36 percent from the prior April, while privately negotiated volume increased 24 percent to 172,000 contracts per day. Average daily volume cleared through CME ClearPort was 388,000 contracts for April 2010, down 20 percent compared with April 2009.  The rolling three-month CME ClearPort rate per contract through March was up 28 percent, even though the rolling three-month CME ClearPort average daily clearing volume was down 19 percent in the same period due to a product mix shift and the wide variance in rate per contract for individual CME ClearPort products.

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.

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk.  CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate.   CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago.  CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the largest central counterparty clearing services in the world, which provides clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®.   These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets. 

The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, Globex, E-mini and CME ClearPort are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago.  NYMEX and New York Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.  Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com. 

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SOURCE CME Group