The Kansas City Board of Trade set new calendar month records in May for both the exchange and the Hard Red Winter Wheat Futures contract.
A new calendar month record was set for the month of May in total exchange futures of 539,710 contracts, breaking the previous May record of 425,682 contracts in 2006 by 21 percent. This marked the 11th time in the last 12 months that a new record had been set for total exchange volume in a calendar month. Total exchange volume was 75.1 percent greater than May of 2010.
In addition, HRW wheat futures trading volume set a new calendar month record for the month of May. A total of 517,416 contracts were traded in May, marking the 12th consecutive month this has occurred. The previous monthly record for May was 365,497 contracts, with the new record a 29.4 percent increase. Volume was 70 percent greater than May of 2010.
Year-to-date trading volume continued to post substantial gains over 2010 trading volume, a year in which new annual volume records were set. Total exchange trading volume is running 87.4 percent higher than last year, with HRW wheat futures volume running 82.9 percent ahead.
Wheat options trading volume in May was over five times than that of last May. Year-to-date volume was over four times of that traded last year, while open interest was up 81.9 percent over the same time period.
The Kansas City Board of Trade is a for-profit corporation organized under the laws of Delaware. The KCBT, founded in 1856, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat. Daily quotes, market commentary, historical data and charting services are available on our website at
www.kcbt.com.
