KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S. — The Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) said on Oct. 1 that it has set new monthly volume records for the exchange as a whole and the hard red winter (HRW) wheat futures contract for the month of September.

KCBT exchange volume traded during the month of September totaled 470,522 contracts, breaking the previous September volume record of 393,387 contracts set in 2007 by 19.6%. HRW wheat futures trading volume in September amounted to 453,084 contracts, breaking the previous September volume record of 345,462 contracts set in 2007 by 31.2%.

Exchange trading volume was 44% higher than in September 2009, while HRW wheat futures volume was 44.1% higher for the same time period. HRW wheat options volume increased 42% compared to September 2009 and 34.4% compared to last month.

Open interest in the HRW wheat futures continues to post large gains and set several new all-time records earlier this month, culminating in a record 218,321 contracts outstanding on Sept. 27. At month's end, wheat futures open interest was 75.2% higher than at the end of September 2009 and 5.5% higher than at the end of last month.

Wheat options open interest showed gains of 60.3% compared to the end of September 2009 and 70.3% compared to the end of last month. Open interest measures the number of open trading positions in a market. Each KCBT wheat futures contract represents 5,000 bushels of wheat.

Year-to-date volume for the HRW wheat futures contract is running 51.8% ahead of last year at this time. Exchange volume is running 50.3% ahead of last year at this time.