ICE Futures achieved a number of milestones during the month of May.
The ICE WTI Crude futures contract launched February 3 on ICE Futures established a monthly volume record in May of 2,481,788 contracts, an increase of 41.0% over the previous monthly volume record set in April. The contract has achieved consecutive monthly volume records since launch. ICE WTI Crude futures reached a daily volume record of 157,009 contracts on May 9. ADV in the ICE WTI Crude futures contract established a new high of 112,809 contracts in May. Open interest in the contract reached a record on May 26 of 237,603 contracts, with open interest standing at 213,506 contracts on May 31.
ICE Futures posted two exchange-wide daily volume records in May, with 451,308 contracts traded on May 9, surpassing the May 4 record of 430,939 contracts. The exchange also established a total open interest record in May, with 1,037,521 contracts on May 26. This marked the first time exchange-wide open interest exceeded one million contracts.
OTC Business Segment
In ICE's OTC business segment, average daily commissions reflect daily trading activity in the company's electronic OTC markets. In May 2006, ICE's average daily commissions increased 122.3% to $583,537 from $262,538 in May 2005. The significant year-on-year increase in average daily commissions was driven by continued growth in the trading of ICE's cleared OTC contracts following the introduction of new cleared contracts in the first half of 2006.
OTC Segment: March Average Daily Commissions
May 2006
|
May 2005
|
% Change
|
|
ICE OTC Average Daily Commissions |
$583,537
|
$262,538
|
122.3%
|
Futures Business Segment
At ICE Futures, ADV in May 2006 increased 112.8% to 338,792 contracts compared to ADV of 159,242 contracts in May 2005. May was the fifth consecutive month record ADV was achieved at ICE Futures, surpassing the April 2006 ADV record of 305,285 contracts. Total monthly futures volume rose 134.0% to a record 7,453,433 contracts, compared to monthly volume of 3,184,846 contracts in May 2005. The May record represented a 9.7% increase over the previous monthly volume record of 6,797,173 contracts in March 2006.
Volume in ICE Gas Oil futures in May increased 86.2% compared to May 2005, with 1,305,528 contracts traded. ICE Brent Crude futures volume rose 44.2% to 3,531,864 contracts, representing the second strongest month in the history of the contract
At May 31, 2006, total open interest in ICE Futures contracts stood at 955,196 contracts, with open interest in the ICE Brent Crude futures contract at 440,309 contracts. This compares to total open interest of 557,194 contracts and Brent Crude futures open interest of 326,814 at May 31, 2005.
Futures Segment: March Volume Statistics
Contract |
Total Volume
May 2006
|
Total Volume
May 2005
|
Volume % Change
|
ADV
May
2006
|
ADV
May
2005
|
ADV % Change
|
IPE Brent Crude futures | 3,531,864 | 2,448,880 | 44.2% | 160,539 | 122,444 |
31.1%
|
IPE GasOil futures | 1,305,528 | 701,248 | 86.2% | 59,342 | 35,062 | 69.2% |
ICE WTI Crude Futures | 2,481,788 | n/a | -- | 112,809 | n/a | -- |
Other contracts* | 134,253 | 34,718 | 286.7% | 6,102 | 1,736 | 251.5% |
Total ICE Futures | 7,453,433 | 3,184,846 | 134.0% | 338,792 | 159,242 | 112.8% |
* "Other contracts" include ICE Heating Oil Futures, ICE Unleaded Gasoline Blendstock (RBOB) Futures, ICE UK Natural Gas Futures, ICE-ECX CFI Futures, ICE UK Electricity Futures and ICE Brent Options and ICE Gas Oil Options. The ICE-ECX CFI Futures contract is the result of a cooperative relationship between ICE Futures and the Chicago Climate Exchange, Inc. and its subsidiary, the European Climate Exchange. ICE Futures shares in the revenue derived from the ECX CFI Futures contract.
Additional May Highlights:
• In May, ICE announced plans to introduce an additional 10 new OTC cleared contracts in June, consisting of refined oil swap contracts. This will mark the fourth set of new contracts launched this year, with 34 new cleared OTC contracts in natural gas and power introduced since March.
• ICE opened a new telecommunications hub in Singapore in May to improve access and reduce connectivity costs to ICE's electronic trading platform for ICE market participants in the Asian region. The Asian hub follows a European hub ICE opened last year for Western European customers, a Chicago hub opened in January, and a London hub opened in March. ICE also plans to establish a hub in New York this month. Market participants can use these hubs to access ICE's energy markets, and ICE can customize the bandwidth size for their connections, as well as the
type of circuits they require to meet their specific data needs.
Additional historical futures volume and OTC commission data can be found at:
https://www.theice.com/exchange_volumes_2005.jhtml