CME Group, the operator of one of the largest derivatives exchanges in the United States, published its market statistics for December and consolidated the quarterly and annual numbers.
According to the official figures, the average trading volume (ADV) with forex contracts in December came in at 875,000 with a decline of 11 percent from the same month of the prior year. However, FX derivatives jumped month-over-month by 9.2 percent.
Additionally, the yearly demand for forex derivatives instruments turned out to be on the lower side, declining 7 percent when compared with 2020. For the fourth quarter, FX ADV marginally declined by 2 percent from the prior year’s same quarter.
While agricultural and metals derivatives ADV followed forex towards the downturn, interest rates and equities demand surged significantly. The monthly ADV of interest rates instruments jumped by 41 percent to 7.08 million contracts, whereas equities ADV saw a 45 percent increase.
Yearly Performance
Moreover, the overall yearly performance of the platform remained impressive. It reported a record ADV for the year with 19.6 million contracts. That number increased by 3 percent from 2020. The demand for December and the fourth quarter both jumped by 26 percent each to 20.5 million contracts and 18 million contracts, respectively.
Overall demand for SFOR, treasury notes and bonds, and several micro e-mini index derivatives touched a record high in the year.
In addition, the CME Group is offering Bitcoin derivatives to US traders since December 2017, and the demand for such instruments has only increased. In 2021, trading with Bitcoin contracts touched a record ADV of 10,105 contracts, increasing 13 percent.
Furthermore, CME that operates outside the United States witnessed a 5 percent jump in ADV there to 5.5 million contracts. It saw 5 percent growth in the Asian and Latin American markets each, while the EMEA market jumped by 3 percent.
