Volumes
New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) said average daily volume totalled 1.71m contracts for April 2008, a 22% increase from 1.39m contracts per day a year earlier. The majority of trading was executed electronically, with Nymex revealing that CME Globex trades averaged 772,567 contracts per day - a 30% increase over 594,311 contracts per day in April 2007 electronic volume. Average daily volume on Nymex Clearport was 428,625 contracts for April, compared to 318,917 contracts traded in April 2007, representing a 34% increase. While floor trading is some-what of dying trend among US exchanges, Nymex floor-traded energy futures and options averaged 222,466 contracts per day for April.
Russian Exchange, Micex, reported a substantial increase in trading of its currency futures, culminating in the exchange recording a new open interest high on May 13. During the first 12 days of May, total trading volume in US...