BACK TO THE FUTURES
By Journal of Indexes Staff

CME August Volume Down

CME Group saw its overall average daily volumes decline 7 percent in August year-over-year, falling to 10.2 million contracts from 10.9 million in August 2008. However, according to CME Group, that was actually the best year-over-year performance of any month so far this year. ADV increased 5 percent from July 2009, a month that saw its ADV fall a stomach-churning 25 percent from the prior year.

Equity index contracts fared worse than the exchange as a whole, with their volume dropping a full 10 percent year-over-year to an ADV of 2.5 million contracts.