The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) announced today that total OCC volume reached 363,275,500 contracts in April. This represents an 11.79% percent increase over the April 2009 volume of 324,951,307 contracts. OCC year to date total volume is up 9.16% with 1,294,545,141 contracts.
Options: Exchange-listed options trading in the U.S for the month of April was up 11% from the previous year. Index options trading increased 30% higher than the previous April with 25,995,142 contracts. Equity options trading volume rose 9.9% with 334,758,439 contracts.
Futures: Futures cleared by OCC in April rose to 2,521,919 with an average daily contract of 107,206. Equity futures volume reached 555,255 contracts, a 549% percent increase over the same month last year where 85,580 were traded. Index and other futures volume came in at 1,966,290 this month and show a year to date average of 87,642 daily contracts.
Securities Lending: OCC's stock loan program, including OTC and AQS, saw an average daily notional value of $13,560,953,607, a 5% percent decrease from March's average open interest. The past year has seen a trend to increasing average daily stock loan transactions, including from March to April despite the decline in notional value. 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.
