The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 335,399,999 total options contracts changed hands in January, which is down 11.38 percent compared to January of last year when 378,480,506 contracts were traded.
Although volume is down compared to last year, January 2012 is the third highest January by volume on record. Average daily volume for the month came in at 16,770,000 contracts, 11.47 percent less than the 18,942,025 contracts traded during January 2011.
Equity options volume (options on individual stocks and ETFs) in January saw 313,363,017 contracts exchanged, 11.68 percent less than in January 2011 when 354,795,514 contracts were traded. On average, 15,668,151 contracts were traded each day throughout January compared to last year when an average of 17,739,776 contracts were traded daily, representing an 11.68 percent decrease.
