CME Group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Globex electronic trading platform for trading futures and options, said Wednesday it hit a record volume in gold futures and options.

Gold futures and options, often used by investors as an anchor to windward when equity markets or the U.S. dollar are falling, soared Tuesday to 504,368 contracts, surpassing the July 28, 2010, record of 469,689 contracts.

Futures and options on the Australian dollar, which like gold is a popular safe haven for investors seeking protection from a falling U.S. dollar, hit 311,684 contracts, surpassing the August 5, 2011, record of 285,355 contracts.

CME also said it reached a record high in single-day volume with 25,734,651 contracts traded across all asset classes Tuesday surpassing the previous record of 25,282,704 contracts on May 6, 2010.

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