The FIA (Futures Industry Association) is out with their annual data showing just how big the futures and options (what we some might call derivatives) world is. Specifically, looking at the 2017 volume and open interest on all futures and options exchanges. 2017 held steady with 25 Billion contracts:
Overall volume did decline by 20 million trades, or 0.01% of total trades year-over-year. Each region experienced a decline in trading except North America and Latin America:
Growth by Sector
Between 2016 and 2017, volume of Interest Rate Futures and Options grew by 500 Million contracts. The biggest chance came from the 3 Month Euribor Futures contract (traded on the ICE Futures Europe) with volume up 62 Million trades, or a 46% increase. Everyone’s favorite, the Eurodollar, saw a 35% increase in volume year-over-year, but comes in third place amongst most traded Interest Rate derivatives.
Meanwhile, the top Interest rate increase of open interest came from IDI Index Options, up 13 million contracts, or a 110% increase.
Top 20 Commodity Future Contracts Traded in 2017
Interest Rate Futures and Options might have been the highest performing sector, but what about the most traded Commodity future? If you would have guessed Steel Rebar Futures, you would have guessed right, followed by Brent futures traded on the Moscow Exchange.
Top Exchange
Finally, which futures exchange can hold claim to the most contracts handed over in the year 2017? No surprise, it is once again the CME with a 1.6 Billion in volume over second place, National Stock Exchange of India, and an almost 2 Billion contract lead over ICE:
To put this into context, CME only led ICE by 300 Million contracts back in 2013. It’s not only that the CME has 1 Billion more contracts since 2013, but ICE has lost 700 Million contracts on its exchange since 2013.
Takeaway
In a year with little market movement, it’s good to see the amount of market activity remained the same. The CME has taken an even larger lead for volume than any other exchange. When it comes to interest rates, we will say that Managed Futures and Global Macro programs love interest rate markets, which would set up for an even more interesting 2018 than we’ve already experienced.
