MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S. — MGEX announced on Jan. 3 that December and 2010 volume and open interest broke previous records.

December total exchange volume of 153,714 futures and options contracts broke the previous December monthly record set in 2007 by 22,916 contracts. A new December futures trading volume record was also set in December when 150,467 futures contracts traded, 23,009 contracts or 18% better than the previous record set in 2007.


Last month also saw a new December electronic trading record set with 137,802 contracts trading electronically, a 138% increase over the previous record set in December 2008. Dec. 2 was a top 10 electronic trading day with 11,790 contracts trading electronically.

In year-over-year comparison, December 2010 total exchange volume increased 145% over the previous year, while December 2010 electronic trading volume increased 162% over December 2009.

Calendar year 2010 also marked several additional volume and open interest records for MGEX, including the second highest total exchange volume in history as 1,722,497 contracts traded during the year. The total marked a 40% increase over 2009 total exchange volume.

June 2010 total volume of 211,841 was the second best monthly exchange volume in history. Other top 20 exchange volume months were August, November, and July, the third, eighth and fifteenth highest exchange volume months, respectively. Daily exchange volume records were also broken on June 14, July 15 and Nov. 16, the seventh, eighth and 17th best volume days, respectively.

The top five electronic trading months in exchange history occurred in 2010. June electronic trading totaled 190,497 contracts, shattering the previous record set in November 2009 by 59,321 contracts or 45% percent. In all, seven of the top 10 and 11 of the top 20 electronic trading volume months occurred in 2010, as well as nine of the top 10 and 17 of the top 20 electronic trading volume days.

MGEX set numerous open interest records in 2010 as Nov. 9 marked the highest open interest ever at MGEX with 79,355 open contracts. Eight of the top 10 and 13 of the top 20 open interest records were set in 2010. In year-over-year comparison, open interest increased 51% in December 2010 versus the previous period.