CME Archives - The Industry Spread

Traiana Provides Central Clearing Connectivity to HKEX OTC Clear for FX Deliverables

January 30, 2019 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Regulatory Annoucements Tagged: business, Central Clearing Connectivity, CME, FX, FX Deliverables, FX trades, HKEX, HKEX OTC Clear, innovative initiative, investment, lifecycle management, market, trade, Traiana

Traiana, a leading infrastructure service which provides trade life-cycle and risk management solutions, today announced that it has provided direct central clearing connectivity to the Hong Kong Exchanges (HKEXs) and Clearing’s OTC Clearing Hong Kong (OTC Clear).

Market participants can now access HKEXs OTC Clear service to clear USD/CNH and USD/HKD FX forward and swaps, vTraiana, a leading infrastructure service which provides trade life-cycle and risk management solutions, today announced that it has provided direct central clearing connectivity to the Hong Kong Exchanges (HKEXs) and Clearing’s OTC Clearing Hong Kong (OTC Clear).ia Traiana’s Clearing Hub (CCP Connect), which provides affirmation, matching and trade processing capabilities.

HKEXs OTC Clear Deliverable FX service can be used to mitigate settlement risk which arises when payments and receipts of different currencies occur at different intervals during a standard bilateral settlement process. The service can also be used to offset settlement exposure with its clearing house cross currency swaps service.

Member banks are now able to clear deliverable FX trades, irrespective of how they were executed, using one of Traiana’s many connectivity and workflow options. Existing Traiana clients and electronic trading venues can enable the HKEX clearing workflow as an add-on to their existing Traiana FX post-trade processing services.

“We are very happy to be working with Traiana,” said Jacky Mak, Head of OTC and FIC Business Development in HKEX’s Clearing Division. “It enhances our ability to connect with the growing number of market participants interested in HKEX’s broad range of services including RMB-related services.”
“As the number of firms looking to voluntary clear FX instruments continues to rise, central clearing connectivity is becoming more and more important to our client base,” said CME Head of Optimization Asia, Guy Rowcliffe. “Our partnership with HKEX, provides the market with an innovative initiative which can be used to address a number of challenges associated with standard bi-lateral trade lifecycle management.”

Traiana is a part of CME Group.

ICE’s Bakkt Crypto Exchange Platform Inks First Acquisition Agreement, To Buy Certain Asset of Chicago-Based Rosenthal Collins Group

January 15, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: BAKKT, Blockchain, brokerage, CBOE, CME, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency exchange, financial institutions, financial services, ICE, investment, regulators, Rosenthal Collins Group

Intercontinental Exchange’s cryptocurrency platform Bakkt has signed the company’s first acquisition agreement. Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler made the announcement on her official medium blog. The cryptocurrency startup will buy certain assets of Chicago-based futures commission merchant — Rosenthal Collins Group (RCG).

Rosenthal Collins Group established nearly 100 years ago has also sold its customer business of the futures brokerage to London-headquartered commodities broker Marex Spectron. RCG has recently expanded its client base to 14,000 accounts while deepening its introducer broker network.

Bakkt’s acquisition of RCG’s asset is the latest push towards positioning itself towards more regulated markets. According to Bakkt CEO, the RCG’s system and expertise would improve the company’s risk management and treasury operations. This acquisition is in line with other US cryptocurrency operators including Coinbase which puts them in a firmer regulatory footing with regulators. It further helps the crypto firm to position themselves up to offer a broader range of crypto-based financial products.

Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler stated in her blog:

“It will enhance our risk management and treasury operations with systems and expertise. Other aspects of the transaction will contribute to our regulatory, AML/KYC and customer service operations as we help enable digital asset acceptance by bringing more choice and control to buyers and sellers,”

Georgia based ICE last month said that the Bakkt would launch the first physically delivered Bitcoin futures in the last week of January. But now it has been delayed for the third time with no specific date of launch. The initial launch was set for November 2018.

Other established exchange like Cboe and CME offers Bitcoin futures but are cash settled, in which the actual cryptocurrency doesn’t change hands.

Catena’s Reporting Solution Integrated in CME Group’s Trade Repositories

January 11, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Company News, Industry News Tagged: Aaron Hallmark, Catena, Catena's Reporting Solution, CME, Fintech, Jonathan Thursby, MiFID II, Randall Duran, regulatory obligations, TRACE, Trade Reporting, trade repositories

CME Group’s North American and European trade repositories have integrated the capabilities of Catena Technologies’ Trace Reporting solution, the fintech company announced.

The business process management (BPM), enterprise integration, and enterprise content management solutions provider has designed TRACE to help financial institutions fulfill global regulatory obligations for derivative trade reporting.

The integration with CME Group‘s trade repositories allows customers in Europe, United States, Canada, and Australia, to benefit from automated G20 trade submission and post-submission reconciliation for customers with global trade reporting requirements.

Randall Duran, Chairman of Catena Technologies, commented:

“We see a major opportunity to help financial firms in North America and Europe fulfill their global regulatory trade reporting obligations and address upcoming reporting changes. Many of these firms have issues with delegated reporting and third-party trade reporting services that have limited capabilities. Working together with CME Group, Catena is able provide a solution that improves customers’ operational workflows and provides an end-to-end solution that addresses the full range of regulatory compliance needs.”

Jonathan Thursby, Head of Global Repository Services at CME Group, said:

“CME Group is pleased to work with Catena in extending their success with customers in APAC and providing comprehensive trade reporting solutions to customers globally. Working together with leaders like Catena to improve the accuracy of trade reporting and reduce operational costs will bring clear benefits to our customers. As a global leader and operator of trade repository licenses, spanning Australia, Canada, European Union and the United States, CME Group can offer a common experience and broad expertise to optimize trade reporting.”

Aaron Hallmark, Chief Executive Officer of Catena Technologies, added:

Aaron Hallmark, Chief Executive Officer of Catena Technologies

“Many firms have implemented tactical solutions for G20 and MiFID II reporting that rely on manual processing, are costly to maintain, and are difficult to manage and monitor. TRACE’s automated reconciliation, in-line data quality controls, and dashboard monitoring capabilities, together with CME Groups’ strong technology and operations, can help customers overcome these challenges.”

TRACE manages the end-to-end reporting and reconciliation workflow by automatically capturing, calculating, enriching, transforming, and submitting the required information to trade repositories. The system also reconciles trade repository data with a firm’s in-house and external data sources.

Catena’s system lowers operational costs through extensive pre-submission data validations and up-front error reporting which minimize costly re-submissions. Its centralised reporting mechanics mean operational economies of scale, and users can query consolidated data on demand, from Excel or from online and mobile devices.

Global Exchanges and Marketplaces Reported Strong Trading Volume across Segments in October 2018

November 5, 2018 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: ADV, average daily volume, CME, Equity Index volume, Global Exchanges, Marketplaces, MOEX, Moscow Exchange, operational metrics, trading volume, turnover

Moscow Exchange (MOEX)

Moscow Exchange has released its October 2018 operational metrics reporting a 10 per cent month-on-month increase in total trading volume across Moscow Exchange’s markets to RUB 78.1 trillion. Segment wise details of trading volume for the month of October 2018.

Equity and Bond Market

Trading in equity and bond market increased by 8.3 per cent in October 2018 to RUB 2,601.3 bn ( RUB 2,401.8 bln Oct. 2017). The turnover in shares, investment fund units and RDRs increased by 55.7 per cent to RUB 1,047.9 bn (Oct. 2017: RUB 673.2 bln) and turnover in corporate, regional and sovereign bonds was RUB 1,553.4 bn (Oct 2017: RUB 1,728.7 bn)

Derivatives Market

Turnover in the Derivatives segment increased by 28.8 per cent to RUB 8.4 trillion (Oct. 2017: RUB 6.5 trillion). Open interest at the end of the month amounted to RUB 503.7 bln (Oct. 2017: RUB 861.0 bln).

FX Market

Total turnover in the FX Market increased by 11.4 per cent to RUB 30.4 trillion (Oct. 2017: RUB 27.3 trillion). Spot trades increased by 13.8 per cent to RUB 7.0 trillion and swap trades and forwards amounted RUB 23.4 trillion.

The average daily volume during the month was RUB 1,323.7 bln compared to RUB 1,242.2 bln in October 2017.

CME Group

CME Group on Friday also reported it October month operational metrics, reporting strong growth in trading contracts. The average daily volume (ADV) has reached 20.6 million contracts in October 2018 which is 38 per cent higher from October 2017.

Its Equity Index volume reached 4.7 million contracts per day, which is 111 per cent from October 2017 levels.

Interest Rate volume averaged 10.6 million contracts per day which is 39 per cent higher from October 2017 figures.

The daily Foreign Exchange volume averaged 903,000 contracts in October 2018, up by 2 per cent on yearly basis but is 4.4 per cent lower from the previous month.

Cboe Global Markets

Cboe Global Markets has achieved numerous feat in October by registering record monthly volumes across segments.

The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) futures traded at Cboe Futures Exchange registered record monthly volumes of 9.66 million contracts in October 2018, surpassing the previous record of 9.16 million contracts set in August 2017. CFE’s total volume also reached record monthly high of 9.72 million contracts in October2018, breaking previous high of 9.18 million contracts set in February 2018.

The Cboe S&P 500 options reported record monthly volume of 41.40 million contracts in October 2018, surpassing the previous record of 34.64 million contracts set in February this year.

SPX Weeklys options also recorded an average daily volume of 1.12 million contracts. Previous record volume was 1.03 million contracts which was again set in Feb 2018.

CME Group Achieves Asia Pacific Average Daily Volume of 726,000 Contracts in Q3 2018, Up 4 Percent from Q3 2017

October 17, 2018 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Regulatory Annoucements Tagged: CBOT, CME, CME group, Energy products., marketplace, NYMEX, risk management

LONDON and SINGAPORE, Oct. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that it achieved Asia Pacific quarterly average daily volume (ADV) of 726,000 contracts in the third quarter of the year, up 4 percent from the corresponding period last year. This was driven largely by a strong performance in Equity and FX products, up 41 percent and 36 percent respectively.

“In the past few months, heightened geopolitical uncertainty has further highlighted the need for risk management on a robust, liquid and regulated marketplace,” said Christopher Fix, Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, CME Group. “We continue to see trading volume growth out of Asia Pacific, as our client education efforts gain further traction in the region.”

Latin America quarterly ADV was 82,000 contracts in the third quarter of the year, up 21 percent from the third quarter in 2017. This was driven by 92 percent growth in Interest Rate products and 27 percent growth in Energy products.

Europe, Middle East and Africa quarterly ADV hit 2.9 million contracts in the third quarter of 2018, down 7 percent from third quarter 2017. The Metals and Agricultural Commodities products saw an increase of 14 percent and 3 percent respectively, compared to the same period last year.

In all, CME Group’s international (defined as outside of North America) ADV reached 3.7 million contracts during the third quarter of 2018, down 5 percent over the same period last year.

Globally, CME Group’s September 2018 ADV reached 17.5 million contracts, up 3 percent from September 2017. Open interest at the end of September was 120 million contracts, up 6 percent from September 2017 and up 11 percent from year-end 2017. CME Group averaged 15.6 million contracts per day in the third quarter of 2018, down 1 percent from third quarter of 2017.

As the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. Around the world, CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform. CME Group also operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers through CME Clearing, which offers clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives. CME Group products and services ensure that businesses around the world can effectively manage risk and achieve growth.

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. Dow Jones, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and S&P are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC and S&P/Dow Jones Indices LLC, as the case may be, and have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CME Group Reports Record Intra-day Volume of 1,150,475 contracts on Oct. 11, 2018

October 16, 2018 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: CME, CME group, contracts per day, daily volume, futures, manage risk, Nasdaq-100, options, Options and futures, Tim McCourt

Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index Products and Alternative Investments

Options and futures exchange, CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) has announced that its E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures have reached an all-time daily volume record of 1,150,475 contracts on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, breaking the previous record of 1,149,387 contracts reached on Sept. 18, 2008.

In 2018, the Nasdaq-100 futures and options products have traded an average of 446,000 contracts per day, an increase of 59 per cent from 2017 levels. The average daily, weekly and monthly volumes have almost tripled during the last five years to more than 11,000 contracts per day in 2018.

Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Products and Alternative Investments said:

“This milestone demonstrates how global investors are increasingly turning to CME Group’s products to manage risk or take advantage of trading opportunities amid ongoing volatility in the equity markets. Nasdaq-100 futures and options products allow customers to gain exposure to the 100 largest U.S. non-financial companies while benefiting from capital efficiencies by trading alongside our industry-leading equity index products.”

CME Receives Final Clearance from the US DOJ

In another development, CME Group has received the final clearance from the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act from the United States Department of Justice – Antitrust Division, for acquiring London’s NEX Group Plc. (LON: NXG).

Earlier this year, the CME Group has announced acquistion of NEX at a total £3.9 billion (USD $5.4 billion) deal both cash and shares swaps. It has already received regulatory approvals from UK FCA, Germany, Sweden and Italy and has made the requisite pre-notifications in Hong Kong.

With this, CME Group expects to close the acquisition process by end of this year.

CME Group Launches Free Tool to Help Market Users Gauge Futures Market Liquidity Across Time Zones

September 29, 2018 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Regulatory Annoucements Tagged: CME, CME group, CME Liquidity Tool, Free Tool, Futures Market Liquidity, futures markets, market liquidity

CHICAGO, Sept. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — A powerful new tool to measure futures market liquidity is now available to CME Group market users around the globe. The CME Liquidity Tool allows traders to measure current and historical liquidity of CME Group futures products across asset classes, free of charge. Armed with around-the-clock liquidity data, clients can capitalize on new trading opportunities in increasingly deep and liquid CME Group futures markets across time zones around the globe.

Liquidity is an important measure of participation in any given futures market, because it indicates how easily a market user can enter and exit their positions. The greater the participation, in the form of open buy or sell orders, the more liquid the product is likely to be.

Julie Winkler, CME Group Chief Commercial Officer

“Liquidity in our CME Group futures markets has grown dramatically over the last five years, particularly during European and Asian trading hours,” said Julie Winkler, CME Group Chief Commercial Officer. “Our new CME Liquidity Tool offers market users a cost-effective and efficient way to analyze complex liquidity data of core futures products to inform their trading and hedging strategies.”
“Citi plans to use the CME Liquidity Tool as an additional resource to help global clients better understand various products’ liquidity profiles throughout the 24-hour trading day,” said Stephen Christian, Managing Director, Citi Futures, Clearing and Collateral.

For the first time, the CME Liquidity Tool offers a way to view and export charts measuring market liquidity on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis, during periods of varying market volatility across North American, European and Asian trading hours. The tool measures market liquidity based on three key measures of market liquidity and cost:

Bid-ask spread, or the difference between the prices quoted to buy and sell futures;
Book depth, which is the number of contracts in both buy and sell orders at a given price; and
Cost to trade, which is the amount it will cost in ticks equal to the minimum bid-ask spread to buy or sell a specific order size.

The data science and analytics technology underpinning the CME Liquidity Tool processes more than 70 billion records per month, providing market participants with a faster, cost-efficient way to analyze historic market data of core CME Group futures products.

For more information or to access the CME Liquidity Tool, please visit www.cmegroup.com/liquiditytool. The tool is available to any user who signs up for a free CMEGroup.com account.

Block Trading Going Well on CME, Per Report

July 8, 2018 by Michael Volpe Leave a Comment Filed Under: Feature Articles Tagged: Block Trading, CFTC, CLOB, CME, DMO, futures, National Grain and Feed Association, options, spread trades

Approximately six months in, worries about block trading on the CME have been overblown.

A new report conducted by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s Market Intelligence Division analyzed block trading which the CME first implemented in January 2018.

Block trading is, “privately negotiated futures/options transactions permitted to be executed away from the central limit order book and are subsequently submitted to CME Clearing.” The CFTC said in a statement.

“Prior to the CME’s January launch of block trading, the CFTC heard various concerns from some members of the industry – most importantly, that block trades could reduce liquidity from the central limit order book (“CLOB”) and could reduce price transparency.” The CFTC further noted in its report.

Instead, the CFTC found:

Block trades are insignificant compared to total volume, but the analysis shows block trades can be a significant percent of the total volume in an individual contract month on specific days.
DMO staff observed no increase in block trade volume relative to total volume.
Over 75% of block volume is in the nearby months.
Almost 65% of block futures volume is being offset in the CLOB for the same contract expiration on the same day.
Yes; they (block trades) are in compliance with CME rules.

The CFTC further noted: “In a recent Wall Street Journal article, the National Grain and Feed Association expressed a wariness ‘of increasing futures volume moving into blocks… [fearing] if volumes grow too large it could limit market participation, especially for relatively smaller hedgers.’ Three months is probably too small of a data set to determine if agricultural blocks add or subtract from total volume.

“However, the data shows that the number of block trades is not increasing and, the block volume and block share of volume are also not increasing. Of note, the large record block volume of almost 30,000 contracts on February 8, 2018 was primarily due to two large block corn spread trades. On this day, block trade volume was the highest percentage observed to date at 1.2% of total agricultural volume on that day, about 4% of the March corn volume, and 6% of the May corn volume. DMO staff will continue monitoring this situation and report any significant changes.”

CME Group Acquires NEX Group, Expects Cost Synergies of Up to $200 Mn Annually by 2021

July 5, 2018 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: clearing services, CME, derivatives, futures, FX products, NEX Group, trading costs, trading technology

The CME Group ( NASDAQ: CME) and NEX Group Plc. has reached a definitive agreement on the acquisition of the latter by former and is valued at £10 per share. CME Group will pay out 500 pence in cash and 0.0444 CME Group shares based on the trading price on 28th March 2018, ie $158.84 and the exchange rate of $1.4101:£1, on March 28, 2018. The transaction has been approved by the board of both the entities and is expected to close the deal in the second half of 2018, pending approvals by regulators and NEX shareholders,

Through this deal, CME Group will able to improve its trading technology and streamline access by the reducing touch points that clients need to trade across products. Also, NEX’s OTC post-trade products and services complement CME Group’s derivatives clearing services. It will also help in strengthening the NEX compression, reconciliation and processing businesses.

CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy said on the development:

“At a time when market participants are seeking ways to lower trading costs and manage risk more effectively, this acquisition will allow us to create significant value and efficiencies for our clients globally. As one organization, we will be able to employ the complementary strengths of each company to serve a wider client base while diversifying our combined businesses across futures, cash and OTC products and post-trade services.”

He added: “Michael Spencer and his senior leadership team have built a world-class organization that is at the centre of capital markets. We are committed to maintaining the longstanding relationships NEX has with its clients, and exchange and clearinghouse partners. Building on NEX’s deep roots in Europe and Asia and CME’s strong technology platform, we will transform our international profile and broaden our distribution network in spot and futures FX products as well as cash, repo and futures products in U.S. Treasuries.”

Post completion of the acquisition process, NEX CEO Michael Spencer will be appointed to the Board of Directors of CME Group and will also serve Special Advisor of the combined entity. He will also be the ambassador of the combined entity working with key clients, regulatory authorities in EMEA and Asia. Spencer commented:

“The combination of NEX and CME will be an industry-changing transaction. Bringing together cash and futures products and OTC services will be unique, offering clients improved access to trading, greater financial efficiencies and highly valuable data sets. The technology and innovation opportunities will be diverse and extraordinary. Clients will be better served. CME’s decision to choose London as its European headquarters is also a signal of tremendous support for Britain’s financial services sector.”

According to the terms of the transaction, each NEX share will be entitled to 500 pence in cash and 0.0444 shares of CME Group Class A common stock. The deal is likely to be immediately accretive to adjusted cash earnings per share and run-rate cost synergies are expected to touch $200 million annually by the end of 2021. JP Morgan is acting as a lead financial advisor while Barclays is acting as financial advisor to the CME Group.

Mixed Operating Performance Across Exchanges in the Month of June 2018

July 5, 2018 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: CME, exchange venue, exchanges, futures market, FX streaming, Fx volumes, FXSpotStream, Moscow Exchange, trading volume

FxSpotStream Reports Record Trading Volumes in the Month of June 2018

FxSpotStream, a multibank FX streaming aggregation and a matching service supporting trading in FX Spot, Forwards, Swaps, NDFs and Precious Metals has started the second half of 2018 with record volumes, marking fresh highs in the group’s seven years history.

The strong volumes in June 2018 have been aided by political turbulence in Europe, trade tariffs imposed by the US on global trade which made the market very volatile. During the month, the group has witnessed average daily volume (ADV) of $30.4 billion, recording 8.2 per cent month-on-month jump from $28 billion and on the yearly interval, the growth is over 50 per cent. The total volume during the month was $637.7 billion, slightly lower than the previous month of $645.4 ‎billion, which is due to less no. of trading days i.e 21 days compared to 23 days in May 2018.

The group was founded in 2011, was created as a cost-effective platform offering services on a commission-free model for buy-side firms tapping prices from banks using a multi-dealer aggregating platform. Twelve leading banks provide liquidity that includes Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered, UBS, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, BNP, Citi. BOA Merill Lynch, Bank of Tokyo and Commerzbank AG.

Moscow Exchange Reports Second Consecutive Months in Drop of Trading Volumes

Moscow Exchange, Russia’s multi-asset trading exchange venue has recorded second continuous month of fall in trading volume in June 2018. The exchange previous month (May 2018) has reported a sizeable decline in the Fx trading volume of $490 billion, and in June 2018, it reported a reading of $447.8 billion, a decline of over 6.3 per cent month on month. On yearly interval also, there is a weakness of over 10 per cent.

The exchange’s total trading volume during the month is recorded at $1.12 trillion, which is 8.5 per cent lower to $1.25 trillion in May 2018 but is 16.8 per cent higher year-over-year. The weakness in trading volumes is not just confined to forex but also across its derivative market volumes.

CME Group Releases Q2, 2018 Aggregated Trading Volume Data

CME Group, the world’s largest futures exchange operator has released Q2, 2018 aggregated volumes, sharing some key trade statistics.

In Q2, 2018, the group reported an average daily volume of 18.4 million contracts, a fall of 17 per cent, quarter over quarter from 22.2 million contracts per day in Jan-March quarter. But on the yearly timetable, the overall gain was 12 per cent against Q2 of 2017.

The yearly growth was contributed by the strong performance in interest rate futures market which grew at a rate of 12 per cent YoY, Metals volumes up by 27 per cent from Q2, 2017. The strong performance in the first quarter was aided by heightened market volatility in February which extended till March across the segment.

CME, which owns the Chicago Board of Trade, said that daily Fx volumes rose 12 per cent year over year, coming in at 1 million contracts per day in Q2, 2018 but were down 9 per cent quarter-over-quarter from a record 1.1 million contracts per day in first-quarter 2018.