July Volume Up 14% At CBOE - Pace Of Year-To-Date Volume Remains Brisk

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) announced today that July volume totaled 28,231,303 contracts traded, an increase of 14% over the July 2003 volume of 24,727,786 contracts. Through the end of July, CBOE's year-to-date volume of nearly 209 million contracts traded is 31% ahead of 2003's pace.

Exchange Volume, July 2004
Total Volume

28,231,303 contracts
+14% vs year-ago (Jul 03)
+6% vs previous month (Jun 04)

Average Daily Volume

1,344,348 contracts
+20% vs year-ago (Jul 03)
+6% vs previous month (Jun 04)

Open Interest

137,336,347 contracts
+25% vs year-ago (Jul 03)
+2% vs previous month (Jun 04)

Year-To-Date Volume

208,954,069 contracts
+31% vs YTD 2003

July highlights at CBOE included:

During July, volume in index options rose 12% as over 10 million contracts traded, while volume in stock option classes (equities) increased 16% with over 18 million contracts traded.
Options on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) were the most-actively traded index options at CBOE during July as volume totaled 3,769,375 contracts, an increase of 40% over 2003.
Several other indexes posted strong gains in July, including: Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX), up 74%; Russell 2000 Index (RUT), up 94%; and Semiconductor HOLDRs Trust (SMH), up 81%.
The top five stock option classes traded at CBOE during July were: Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Intel Corp. (INTC), Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO), Citigroup, Inc. (C), and Taser International, Inc. (TASR).
On July 12th, CFE set a new record for single-day trading volume with 1,844 contracts traded, surpassing the previous high of 1,594 contracts from May 24th. Volume in June at the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE), launched on March 26th, totaled 8,911contracts, while open interest at month's end stood at 7,006 contracts.