KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S. — The Kansas City Board of Trade’s (KCBT) announced on Nov. 1 that its Hard Red Winter wheat futures contract set a new trading volume record for the month of October as 430,271 contracts were traded last month. The previous monthly October volume record was 421,499 contracts in 2006. Trading volume was 17.1% higher than October 2009 volume.

KCBT exchange volume traded during the month of October was the second largest ever for the calendar month of October. A total of 449,747 contracts were traded, shy of the 2006 record of 465,752 contracts by only 3.4%. Total exchange volume was 18.9% higher than October 2009 volume.

Wheat options trading volume was active in October, posting an 82.4% gain compared to October 2009 and 11.7% compared to last month.

Open interest in the HRW wheat futures continued to post large gains during the month of October, setting 14 new all-time records throughout the month. The current record stands at 236,543 contracts and was set on Oct. 28. At month’s end, wheat futures open interest was 86.4% higher than at the end of October 2009 and 11.3% higher than at the end of last month. Wheat options open interest gained 68.7% compared to the end of October 2009 and 27% 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 47.7% ahead of last year at this time. Exchange volume is running 46.5% ahead of last year at this time.