OREANDA-NEWS. On 03 April 2008 was announced, that an absolute record in the trading volume of options with short-term execution was set on FORTS. On March 31st, 2008 the trading volume of short-term options stood at 655 591 contracts.

Hedging portfolios with the help of short-term options results in lower costs and consequently allows most effective hedging of price risks in conditions of high volatility on world financial markets.

FORTS, the derivatives market of RTS, is a leading trading venue for futures and options in Russia. Trading on FORTS started in September 2001. At present FORTS has the widest range of instruments in Russia. These are 65 contracts (46 futures and 19 options) on shares of Russian companies, bonds, short term interest rates, currency, RTS Index, oil, silver, gas, oil, sugar and gold.

Trading volume on FORTS in 2007 grew threefold and reached 297.41 bln dollars or 144.9 million contracts . Compared with 2006 the number of trades increased more than twofold and reached 11.7mln. Total open interest at the end of the year equalled 14.7 bln  rubles in cash or 3.2 million contracts. FORTS also saw a record day’s trading in 2007 when the value of all contracts traded reached 5.2 bln dollars on December 13th, 2007.