In a sign that the volumes have been growing in the markets over the last few months, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has released its volume numbers for March and they have shown an uptrend. It has to be noted that the CME had posted all time high volumes in the previous month of February, and hence it is not logical to expect them to continue to post higher volumes for March.
But even then, the numbers posted for March are higher as compared to the other months that were prior and this once again proves that the trading volumes have been picking up. The total number of contracts that were trade was 20.3 million contracts and though this was lesser than that in February, it did show an annual advance as the number were better by 23% as compared to the numbers from the same month of 2017.
The higher numbers were made possible due to the higher trading volume mainly in the Metals and also in the equity indices. It has to be noted that world over, the equity indices are generally much more preferred than contracts on specific stocks and hence this is no surprise. The number of contracts in this space showed a jump of 39% as compared to those in March 2017 and this is in line with the additional volatility that we have been seeing in the markets during this period.
The CME also introduced BTC futures just a few months back in a bid to stay abreast with the changes in the markets around the world and though those volumes have not been reported separately and we believe that those volumes may not be as significant as yet, this could have also been responsible for the exchange to post higher trading volume numbers over the last few months. The additional liquidity and volatility seen over the last few months has helped the traders to trade more and in a more active manner which has benefited the exchanges and the brokers.
