The trading volume of Dubai crude oil futures has been on the rise lately in Tokyo, with the open interest hitting 112,288 contracts at the Tokyo Commodity Exchange , Inc. (TOCOM). This contract has shown record breaking increases in open interest for two consecutive days.
Compared with subsided trading activity on other domestic commodities futures, investments are flowing into ETNs (exchange-traded notes) that are linked to Tocom's Dubai crude oil futures.
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Tocom's Dubai crude-linked ETNs was created by Nomura Securities and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2013. It was initially designed to act as a benchmark for Asian crude, like West Texas Intermediate in the U.S. market and Brent crude in Europe, but since traded in yen and kilolitres, it has remained primarily a local investment tool for the domestic Japanese market.
Back to the numbers, it is the first time for the total number of outstanding orders for this contract to reach above 110,000 since the launch on September 10, 2001. TOCOM Dubai Crude Oil open interest reached 92,283 contracts yesterday, surpassing the 90,000 mark for the first time.
At the end of today’s session, open interest for all products was 450,380 contracts. The outstanding figure managed to recover the 450,000 barrier for the first time in eight years. The highest open interest across the TOCOM markets was 456,630 contracts on July 17, 2008.
TOCOM Dubai Crude Oil Futures Open Interest (Sep.2001-Aug.2016). Source: TOCOM
