CME ==> The College Bowl Winner

[jiesen]

CME is having a good day today. Up $6 to $213 already. Just 3 more such days and it's back to setting record highs... and my $230 calls will be in the money!

[jiesen]

holy pork bellies, $$MM!

we could see a $20 gain today alone, if it keeps going like this!

[jiesen]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050301/cgtu063_1.html

great news for CME!

CME Reports Record Average Daily Volume Approaching 3.8 Million Contracts in February, Up 50 Percent From Prior-Year Period and Beating the All-Time High Set in January 2005
Tuesday March 1, 4:05 pm ET
CME(R) Globex(R) Volume Increased 106 Percent vs. February 2004


CHICAGO, March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME, the largest U.S. futures exchange, today reported that total volume for February approached 3.8 million contracts per day, up 50 percent from the same period a year ago and marking an all-time record month. Average daily volume on the exchange's CME(R) Globex(R) electronic trading platform, was 2.5 million contracts, a 106 percent increase from February 2004. Electronic trading represented 66 percent of total CME volume in February, compared with 48 percent in the prior-year period.
CME total interest rate volume was 2.3 million contracts per day in February, up 78 percent from the same period a year ago. This increase was driven by electronic CME Eurodollar futures, which represented 77 percent of total Eurodollar volume in February compared with 15 percent in February 2004.


Electronic CME Eurodollar futures averaged 1.2 million contracts per day in
February.

Average daily volume of CME foreign exchange (FX) products was 266,000 contracts, representing notional value of $35 billion per day and an increase of 49 percent compared to February 2004. During the month, electronic foreign exchange products increased 83 percent from the same period one year ago to reach 210,000 contracts per day. Trading in CME E-mini(TM) equity index products averaged 1.1 million contracts per day in February, up 16 percent versus the same period last year.

Open interest for all CME products at the end of February was at an all- time high, above 40 million contracts, including 9 million Total Return Asset Contracts(TM) (TRAKRS). Additionally, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) had approximately 11.7 million open positions at the CME Clearing House in February. Open interest represents the number of contract positions which are not closed out at the end of a trading session. CBOT's average daily volume in February was over 3.2 million contracts per day, up 40 percent from February 2004.

"February was another record volume month for CME and had the highest year-over-year growth that we have seen in recent history," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "Across the board, our volumes grew in all product lines. Electronic trading on CME Globex has doubled since this time last year and open interest reached a new record high of 29.1 million positions on February 17. Looking ahead, we expect to continue benefiting from the ongoing growth trends within the industry as we redouble our efforts to reach out to new markets and attract new business to CME."

"Our long-term strategy is to leverage our scale advantage and deepen the liquidity in our products to drive revenue and profitability," said CME Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue. "As our strong volume in the first two months of the year demonstrates, we continue to make significant progress toward achieving that goal. In January, volume from all user segments including members, customers, and special programs increased compared to the fourth quarter of 2004. Additionally, the mix of member and customer volumes during January was similar to the fourth quarter of 2004. While January was a record volume month for CME's E-mini product line, member volume increased at a faster rate than customer volume. So far this quarter, our interest rate product line, which has our lowest average rate per contract, has contributed a higher proportion of the total volume. Therefore, we expect the average rate per contract in the first quarter to come in slightly below the average rate per contract of 70.3 cents reported in the fourth quarter."

CME AVERAGE DAILY VOLUME (In Thousands)

February February Percentage
2005 2004 Change
PRODUCT GROUP
Interest Rates 2,256 1,268 78%
E-Mini's 1,105 953 16%
Equity Standard 101 82 24%
Foreign Exchange 266 178 49%
Commodities 43 32 35%
Sub Total 3,772 2,513 50%
TRAKRS 28 48 -41%
Total 3,800 2,561 48%

VENUE
Open Outcry 1,239 1,271 -3%
GLOBEX (Ex TRAKRS) 2,489 1,208 106%
Privately Negotiated 44 34 27%

[billyjoe]

CME is a great one if you want to sleep well.


billyjoe

[mrmarket]

All that volume translates directly to earnings...this pick was a total layup. All you needed was patience.

[billyjoe]

Last week posters on IBD said it was a good candidate to short. I thought "what have they been smokin' "?


billyjoe



Would you believe CME is my only stock not in a retirement account

[sowersnc]

I have hung tough with this one and will be happy to make 15% with you all. It is just a matter of when. I just wished I could see into the future so I could have bought in the 180's.

Thank you for pointing this one out for me.

[Hany]

Cme

CME is an awesome stock, especially with all the political and economic unrest around us, more and more people and firms are using derivatives to hedge their positions and insure against risk.

CME is a winner but financials were out of fashion and now they are in fashion. Energy and steel is out of fashion this week.

I wish you well but not too well.

Hany

[buckhunter]

All it takes is one ANAL-yst

I've never heard of "Sandler O'Neill". What gives them the right to bad-mouth CME? I thought CME's Tuesday announcement was all positive. It looked like we were going in for a lay up (to quote $$MM) and then a dopey ANAL-yst hacked us from behind. It's still just a matter of time before we get our 15%, but it amazes me how one guy's opinion can more than offset a press release of excellent results.

[New-born baby]

What were they smoking?

Last week posters on IBD said it was a good candidate to short. I thought "what have they been smokin' "?


billyjoe

BillyJoe,

If you find out what they were smoking, tell us all on this board. Must have been some kind of a prophecy weed or something.

If you can't find out, I guess we'll have to ask Spike for a channel long day, and go from there. But 15% has twice proven to be too far of a reach. Perhaps 10% is where we ought to target. Maybe this baby is range bound: $180-$225. But that's a pretty good spread. I'll take a $45 profit every time.

[billyjoe]

New-born,

I really believe these traders have a screw loose somewhere. This CME up/down action defies explanation.

billyjoe

[mrmarket]

just watch the earnings and forget about the charts. CME will keep making money and its stock price will ascend. Remember the mantra..

earnings earnings earnings

[New-born baby]

Profit takers

New-born,

I really believe these traders have a screw loose somewhere. This CME up/down action defies explanation.

billyjoe

BillyJoe,

I really think that the profit takers really like this up and down action. Mr.$$$$ has the patience to wait for his target. Me--I'm too nervous for that. I get bored with the up/down, so I start looking to get out at the up and get in at the down. You know: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

[mooddude]

New-born,

I really believe these traders have a screw loose somewhere. This CME up/down action defies explanation.

billyjoe

Today's IBD attrubuted this to the late stage base (4th) which are prone to failure.

[billyjoe]

mooddude,

Any time a stock's behavior differs from IBD's ideology it is either an exception to the rule or they conveniently forget the rule and show you a chart that supports the stocks upward rise. I believe CME will prove to be an exception to the rule. The stock doesn't know it's in a 4th stage base and neither do it's earnings.

billyjoe