According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the combined value of trading in exchange-listed interest rate, equity index and currency contracts had risen to be worth over $333 trillion during the first quarter of this year, up from just over $150 trillion in the same period three years earlier.
In the global over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market, the most recent data from the BIS showed that notional amounts outstanding totalled another $248 trillion at the end of December 2004 – up from below $100 trillion at the end of 2001.
