Derivatives marketplace CME Group has reported a monthly average trading volume of 33.1m contracts for November, its second-highest on record.
This represents a year-on-year increase of 10% and approaches its average daily volume (ADV) record of 35.9m in April earlier this year.
Interest rate contracts topped the list of most traded products in November, with 17.5m traded per day on average during the month. That followed the October 28-29 Federal Reserve meeting and subsequent decision to cut rates by 25bps to 3.75-4%.
Minutes of the meeting suggest Fed policymakers were divided over the cut and whether to implement cuts at their next meeting on December 9-10.
Among the most popular interest rate contracts were Ultra US Treasury Bond futures, which had an ADV of 756,000, setting a new record. Five-Year U.S Treasury Note futures ADV also increased 2% to 2.8 million contracts.
In addition, 30 Day Fed Funds futures ADV rose 56% to 675,000 contracts, while SOFR options daily trading volume increased 18% to 1.6 million
The exchange also saw record Cryptocurrency ADV of 424,000 contracts, a 78% year-on-year increase, which amounted to a notional trading value of $13.2bn.
The top traded products were Ether futures and micro Ether futures. The former saw ADV rise 127% to 24,000 contracts, while ADV in the latter increased by 176% to 229,000 contracts.
Metals also saw 1.3 million contracts traded on average each day last month, a 52% increase from November 2024.
Micro gold futures ADV increased 235% to 476,000 contracts, while micro silver futures ADV rose 238% to 75,000 contracts.
ADV across other asset classes included:
- Equity Index ADV of 8.9 million contracts (up 39% yoy)
- Energy ADV of 2.6 million contracts
- Agricultural ADV of 2.1 million contracts (up 8% yoy)
- Foreign Exchange ADV of 746,000 contracts
