Mondo Visione Worldwide Financial Markets Intelligence

FTSE Mondo Visione Exchanges Index:

The Options Industry Council Announces February Options Trading Volume Grew 2%

Date 01/03/2010

The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 262,434,225 total options contracts were traded in February, representing a 2.33 percent increase over February 2009 volume of 256,464,343 contracts.

Average daily trading volume for February came in at 13,812,328 contracts compared to the same year ago period when 13,498,123 contracts were averaged each day. February year-to-date volume stood at 573,995,766 contracts, an increase of 11.61 percent compared to February 2009 when 514,277,856 contracts were exchanged. Year-to-date daily volume averaged 15,105,152 contracts compared to the prior year period when 13,186,611 contracts were averaged, representing a 14.55 percent increase.

Equity options saw 239,922,344 contracts change hands, 0.44 percent more than in February 2009 when 238,866,795 contracts were traded. Year-to-date equity options volume was 528,861,827 contracts, compared to 478,356,507 contracts at the same point last year which represents an increase of 10.56 percent. Daily equity options volume averaged 12,627,492 contracts per day in February, increasing 0.44 percent over February 2009 when 12,571,937 were averaged.