Agricultural futures and options closed Q3 with 10% growth compared to Q3 2023. This surge was notably fueled by a record 1.6M ADV in August, marking a 19% increase in growth year over year. Drought conditions in Brazil, poor weather in the Black sea, low river levels, increased fund participation and low cattle herd have traders turning to Agricultural futures and options as essential tools for managing risk.

Chicago Wheat-European Milling Wheat Spread futures and KC HRW Wheat-European Milling Wheat Spread futures are now available for trading. These two new cash-settled Wheat futures contracts offer exposure to the American and European wheat markets with a single spread in USD per metric ton. This makes it easier and more efficient to trade the differential between two benchmark Wheat futures contracts.

With demand soaring and supply at its lowest levels in over 60 years, market participants are increasingly turning to Live Cattle options to effectively hedge their price risk. Open interest (OI) in Live Cattle options reached its highest point in a decade during Q3, hitting a record 410,120 contracts on August 1, 2024, surpassing the previous record of 399,626 on July 31, 2014. Q3 also marked the second-best quarter for Agricultural options, closing with an ADV of 324,911 and OI 3.8M.