Business keeps pouring through the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange, setting record volumes this crop year even as one of its contracts died and another lay in a coma.
The success is due to canola, the exchange’s shining star.
On May 28, the exchange reported that it had already surpassed its previous records in annual total futures and options, total futures and canola futures volume. There were still nine weeks to go before the end of the crop year on July 31.
“We’ve had an outstanding year here in terms of our volume,” said Bruce Love, exchange director of marketing.
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In the 1999-00 crop year, 2.37 million contracts were traded in all futures and options. By May 25, 2.39 million contracts had already traded. Total futures reached 2.29 million in 1999-00, but passed that mark as well by May 25.
Canola futures were already nearly four percent ahead of last year’s total, with two months before the end of the year.
July 2001 canola futures also reached a new open interest record for that month at 45,414 contracts, a jump from the previous record of 41,635 contracts set on April 16.
Canola dominates the exchange. About 80 percent of futures and options volume is in the canola contract.
Winnipeg is the only commodity exchange to list canola, and is the world’s prime canola price discovery mechanism.
“We’re quite proud of that,” Love said.
But the exchange recently dropped its moribund oats contract, which had not traded for months, and has announced plans to revamp its comatose pea contract to make it liquid again.
However, this autumn the exchange is introducing a new canola meal contract that it expects will be popular with processors and livestock producers.
Love said the concentration on canola is natural.
“If you look at any of the major exchanges in North America, they’re predominated by one or two contracts,” he said.
“That tends to be the nature of the market. It tends to focus on one product.”
But he said the exchange would like to broaden its base.
“You always have a more robust business if there is more than one contract that is doing well,” Love said.
“We’d certainly like to diversify and see our other grain products do well too.”
