Trading Statistics for September 2009

Trading Statistics for September 2009
On the energy side, the number of transactions hit a record high of 33 379, up 37% on last month and up 40 % on the same month last year, while the actual volume of energy traded was up 10 % year on year, at 1,213 TWh .

The number of freight futures transactions also increased significantly month-on-month, rising 35 % to 1,398. The overall volume of freight derivatives, meanwhile, at 31 348 lots, was up 11 % compared to the previous month.

“The freight futures market is back on track after the summer holiday season, with a sharp uptick seen in overall transaction numbers. Tankers in particular have seen a recovery in activity while freight options open interest has hit another new record,” says Herman W. Michelet, Chief Executive of Imarex. “Energy also had an extremely active month, with transaction volumes nudging 34,000, also a new record.“

Energy Contracts
The number of energy transactions concluded was 33 379, up 40 % year-on-year, while the volume of energy traded was 1 213 TWh, up 10 % year-on-year. As a result the year-to-date figures have also hit new records – the number of energy transactions passing 250,000 and the volume of energy traded reaching 9,730 TWh.

Tanker and Dry Bulk Derivatives
Tanker trade value rose 13 % from August 2009, to 233 million USD, as tanker trading volume climbed 7 % month-on-month, to 13 733 lots. Despite the fact that the Dry Bulk index has been falling through September, the trading volume has increased 28 %, pushing trade value up 7 %. Dry bulk freight rates can be illustrated by the Baltic Exchange Dry Index for spot rates, which was 2 421 at the end of August and 2 220 in the end of September 2009.

Freight Open Interest
At the end of the reporting month, open interest for freight options continued to increase, showing a 58 % year-on-year rise, to 46 533 lots. Open interest for dry bulk was 22 529 lots and for tanker futures it was 30 869 lots, up 7 %. The open interest is the total number of lots which remain to be liquidated by either close-out trades or delivery at NOS Clearing. NOS Clearing counts only long positions. Other clearing houses often count both long and short positions in their open interest figures.

For more information, please contact:

Herman W. Michelet, Chief Executive Officer Tel: +47 2389 4223, herman.michelet@imarex.com

Click here for a full PDF report with charts.

A downloadable excel spreadsheet with trade statistics and financials is available here.