NYSE Liffe’s Commodity Derivatives trading volumes reached new highs in 2010, experiencing double digit growth both in futures and options. Annual volume grew by 37% year on year, reaching a new record of 16,679,006 contracts against 2008’s volume of 13,245,517 contracts.
Total futures volume in 2010 of 14,133,913 contracts increased by 33% against 2009, while total options volume 2,545,093 contracts increased by 65%.
Ian Dudden, Director, Commodity Derivatives, said: “With year on year growth of 37%, 2010 was a particularly strong year for NYSE Liffe’s Commodities portfolio. Strong gains were seen across a broad range of products, both in futures as well as options. Growth has been powered by investors who continue to increase their activity in commodities as an alternative to more traditional investments, as well as by the growing appreciation of the role that derivatives can play in managing price risk for producers, manufacturers and other intermediaries.
Our strongest performing contract this year was Milling Wheat Futures, which saw growth of 125% following the price volatility caused by widespread drought in Russia and Eastern Europe last summer. The contract has now firmly established its position as the global benchmark for European wheat – a fact underlined by its addition to the benchmark Rogers International Commodity Index® (RICI®) earlier this month, with a weighting of 1%.
Furthermore, in addition to the developments in the existing product set, we were able to respond to customer demand through the launch of two new products in 2010 – firstly Malting Barley, followed by our first foray into dairy products, with Skimmed Milk Powder Futures.”
NYSE Liffe’s Commodity Derivatives set numerous individual records during 2010, including the following:
• Total Commodity Derivatives annual volume record of 16,679,006 contracts, up 26% from 13,245,517 contracts in 2008
• Total Commodity Futures annual volume record of 14,133,913 contracts, up 20% from 11,787,197 contracts in 2008
• Total Commodity Options annual volume record of 2,545,093 contracts, up 65% from 1,540,313 contracts in 2009
• Robusta Coffee Futures annual volume record of 2,789,953 contracts, up 10% from 2,514,457 contracts in 20091
• Robusta Coffee Options annual volume record of 482,483 contracts, up 15% from 192,398 contracts in 2009 1
• Cocoa Options annual volume record of 730,027 contracts, up 31% from 556,860 contracts in 2009 • Feed Wheat Futures annual volume record of 147,684 contracts, up 12% from 131,358 contracts in 2008
• Feed Wheat Futures daily volume record of 3,186 contracts on 5 August 2010, up 26% from 2,459 contracts in 2007
• Milling Wheat Futures annual volume record of 4,374,323 contracts, up 127% from 1,925,916 contracts in 2009
• Milling Wheat Futures daily volume record of 72,903 contracts, up 45% from 50,165 contracts earlier in 2010
• Milling Wheat Options annual volume record of 1,016,600 contracts, up 55% from 655,099 contracts in 2009
• Milling Wheat Options daily volume record of 23,102 contracts, up 34% from 17,229 contracts earlier in 2010
• Rapeseed Futures annual volume record of 1,202,153 contracts, up 48% from 812,779 contracts in 2009 • Rapeseed Futures daily volume record of 14,594 contracts, up 30% from 11,195 contracts in 2009 • Rapeseed Options annual volume record of 271,993 contracts, up 102% from 134,370 contracts in 2008 • Corn Futures annual volume record of 240,028 contracts, up 61% from 149,008 contracts in 2009
• Corn Futures daily volume record of 4,916 contracts, up 24% from 3,958 earlier in 2010 • Corn Options annual volume record of 20,245 contracts, up 253% from 5,720 contracts in 2009 • Corn Options daily volume record of 1,857 contracts, up 85% from 1,000 contracts in 2009
In addition to these notable achievements, in April 2010 the Warrant Management Service for the NYSE Liffe Guardian Commodity Management System was introduced for Cocoa and Robusta Coffee. Since May 2010 all transfers of ownership from seller to buyer involving deliveries against Exchange contracts for Cocoa and Robusta Coffee have occurred electronically through NYSE Liffe Guardian. This system introduces the security of the physical warrants being stored in a Depository vault and obviates the need for the seller to deliver physical warrants to the buyer while retaining the security of the transaction as the ownership transfers electronically after payment is confirmed by NYSE Liffe Clearing.
At the end of 2010 the total number of Cocoa and Robusta Coffee warrants held in the depository was 36,027. A total of 25,473 Gradings, including Grading Appeals, were processed through NYSE Liffe Guardian.
During 2010, NYSE Liffe Guardian handled a total of 74,610 deliveries.
NYSE Liffe lists a broad range of Commodity Products including Cocoa, Robusta Coffee, White Sugar, Feed Wheat, Milling Wheat, Rapeseed, Corn, Malting Barley & Skimmed Milk Powder all of which trade exclusively on LIFFE CONNECT®.
The contracts are actively traded by a diverse range of participants, including producers, exporters, trade-houses, processors and manufacturers as well as by managed funds and both institutional and short-term/proprietary investors.
