The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that total options trading volume in January came in at 311,561,541 options contracts, representing a 20.85 percent increase compared to January 2009 volume when 257,813,513 contracts changed hands.
January 2010 now ranks as the second highest January by volume in history. Trading volume for 2010 is averaging 16,397,976 contracts each day compared to the same period last year when 12,890,675 contracts were averaged each day and represents a 27.2 percent increase. Additionally, average daily trading volume for January was 14.4 percent higher than 2009’s average daily volume of 14,335,861 contracts.
OIC also reported that equity options volume in January came in at 288,939,483 contracts, up 20.6 percent over the same period last year. Daily equity options volume had an average of 15,207,341 contracts per day in January, which is 27 percent higher than the year-ago level.