The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that average daily options volume came in at 15,578,265 contracts, 8.91 percent down from the 17,102,093 contracts level of last March. Year-to-date average daily trading volume is down 3.2 percent compared to the first quarter of 2012.
With two fewer trading days than March 2012, a total of 311,565,300 options contracts were traded in March, representing a 17.19 percent decrease compared to last March when 376,246,042 contracts were traded. Year-to-date volume stood at 993,580,233 contracts, off 6.36 percent from last year’s 1,061,109,209 contracts.
Equity options volume came in at 279,047,146 contracts, down 19.78 percent compared to last March when 347,851,439 contracts were exchanged. Average daily volume for equity options in March came in at 13,952,357 contracts, down 11.76 percent from last year’s 15,811,429 contracts. Year-to-date equity options volume stood at 898,885,441 contracts which is 8.70 percent less than the 984,507,776 contracts traded at the same point last year.
