The Options Clearing Corporation Announces 30% Increase In Cleared Contracts For Record Volume Month In May

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) announced today that total OCC volume reached 408,432,157 contracts in May, representing a 29.56% percent increase over the May 2009 volume of 315,257,294 contracts. This marks the first time total cleared volume in a month surpassed 400 million contracts, and is higher than the annual total of 406 million contracts cleared in 1998. OCC year to date total volume is up 13.44% with 1,702,977,298 contracts.

Options: Exchange-listed options trading increased 29% over May 2009 and set a monthly trading record 8% higher than the previous record set in October 2008. Index options trading rose 89% from the previous May. Average daily trading volume for the month was 20,293,001 and the highest volume trading day was recorded on May 6 when 30,818,984 contracts changed hands. Three of the five highest volume days occurred during the month.

Futures: Futures cleared by OCC in May continued to rise as 2,572,130 contracts were cleared with an average daily contract volume of 128,607. Total year to date futures volume is 11.4 million contracts, 1 million contracts less than the total number of futures contracts OCC cleared in 2009.

Securities Lending: OCC's stock loan program, including OTC and AQS, saw an average daily notional value of $12,735,201,333, a 6% percent decrease from April’s average open interest. The past year has seen a trend to increasing average daily stock loan transactions, including a 4% increase from April to May despite the decline in notional value—which is related to May’s stock market decline. As OCC expanded its stock loan program last year, it also changed the program measurement process. Therefore, precise year-on-year data will not be available until mid-year.