CME, the largest US futures exchange, has surpassed its one billionth contract traded since its launch in June 1992.

The one billionth contract was traded on 19 October. As of third quarter 2004, electronic trading represented 61 percent of total CME volume, compared to 52 percent in Q2 2004 and 42 percent in Q3 2003. 

CME Chairman Terry Duffy said: "Trading one billion contracts electronically marks a significant achievement for CME and demonstrates our commitment to providing our global customers with more efficient and effective access to our benchmark products, via CME Globex which operates nearly 24 hours each trading day."

He added: "We continue to provide new technology that will create value-added benefits for our customers, such as the implied butterfly spread functionality we announced this week for trading CME Eurodollars."

CME Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue said: ""As we continue to expand the distribution of our products through CME Globex, we're seeing the results with increased volume and liquidity in our products. For example, during the past nine months, CME progressed from trading a few thousand CME Eurodollar contracts a day to trading nearly one million a day electronically as of the third quarter. To support this continued growth in electronic trading we launched telecommunications hubs in five European cities and initiated our European Incentive Plan, which is attracting new customer business and has grown to an average daily volume of 60,000 contracts."

Average daily volume (ADV) on CME Globex for September was approximately 2 million contracts, an 87 percent increase from Q3 2003 and a 15 percent increase from Q2 2004.