ICE announces 14.45M futures and options contracts traded on March 13

Intercontinental Exchange announced record levels of trading activity across its futures and options markets. On March 13 , ICE hit record volume across its markets with 14.45M futures and options contracts traded during the day. The volume surpassed the previous record set three years ago, on March 12, 2020, as the market reacted to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Volume records set on March 13 included ICE’s financials futures and options portfolio, with a record 10M contracts traded, the highest level since May 29, 2018. Euribor, the benchmark contract for managing short term Euro related interest rate risk, saw a record 5.49M futures and options contracts traded, surpassing the record previously set on May 29, 2018. SONIA, the benchmark contract for UK interest rate risk, saw a record 1.17M futures and options contracts traded. For comparison, average daily volume year to date in ICE’s financial futures and options portfolio is 3M contracts while ADV in Euribor is 1.8M contracts. ICE’s equity indices portfolio saw a record 2.9M futures and options contracts traded on March 13 , beating the record last set on March 14, 2022. The portfolio includes the most liquid markets to trade derivatives based on MSCI and FTSE equity indices. Average daily volume in the portfolio is 423,000 contracts. "The record level of trading activity which took place on ICE’s markets on March 13 reflects a sudden change in risk sentiment in U.S. regional bank stocks, which collided with interest rate expectations that were priced for central bank tightening," said Chris Rhodes, President of ICE Futures Europe. "These volumes reflect a flight to liquidity, demonstrating the reliability of futures markets as a risk management tool." Open interest across ICE’s financials futures and options portfolio is up 12% since the start of the year at 22.69M contracts, with open interest across ICE’s total futures and options portfolio up by 10% over the period at 73M contracts.