The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) announced that the week of March 5 through 9, 2007 was the busiest week on record for trading in options on the S&P 500 Index (SPX), with volume of 4.35 million contracts. The previous weekly record for SPX volume was 4.03 million contracts traded, set during the week of May 15 to 19, 2006. Open interest stood at more than 9.3 million contracts (3,409,095 calls and 5,919,033 puts) on Friday.
Trading volume for all of 2006 in SPX options totaled 104.3 million contracts, with average daily volume of 415,588 contracts. During February 2007, SPX average daily volume was 495,817 contracts.
CBOE also set a new single-day volume record for trading in options on the CBOE Market Volatility Index, VIX, when 208,872 contracts traded on Thursday, March 8th, beating the previous record of 162,856 contracts traded on August 14, 2006.
Launched just one year ago, on February 24, 2006, VIX options have been one of the most successful new products launched at CBOE.Average daily volume for VIX options during February 2007 was 45,605 contracts. For all of 2006, average daily volume was 28,050 contracts. VIX futures are available on the all-electronic CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE).
CBOE, the largest U.S. options exchange and the creator of listed options, is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). For additional information about the CBOE and its products, visit the CBOE website at: http://www.cboe.com/.
