What a difference a year makes. If 2008 demonstrated the industry’s resilience in the face of crisis and its resourcefulness to adapt to changing investor demands, 2009 marked the inevitable bite-back of a vastly diminished appetite for risk.
Headline volumes, however, tell only half the story.
Were it not for the exceptional performance of certain asset classes, and indeed certain contracts, the industry would surely have recorded a much steeper year on year decline.
As things stand, total volumes make the yearly performance look relatively flat. While the number of contracts traded declined from 17.6bn to 17bn, a fall of 3.4%, 2009 was still the industry’s second strongest year on record, dwarfing even 2007’s total of 15.5bn.
An unprecedented rise in volatility was far from bad news for all market segments. The commodities boom continued apace, with metals, agricultural stocks and softs all enjoying...