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The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that total options trading volume in March came in at 351,004,878 options contracts, representing a 1.44 percent increase compared to March 2009 volume when 346,037,577 contracts changed hands.
Average daily trading volume of 15,261,082 contracts for March was 2.97 percent lower than 2009’s average daily volume of 15,728,981 contracts. On March 18, a new top ten day was set as 24,282,440 contracts were traded, making this the tenth highest day on record for total volume traded.
Additionally, year-to-date volume stood at 925,000,644 contracts, up 7.52 percent over the same point last year when 860,315,433 contracts were traded. Trading volume for 2010 is averaging 15,163,945 contracts each day compared to the same period last year when 14,103,532 contracts were averaged each day and represents a 7.52 percent increase.
OIC also reported that equity options volume in March came in at 323,641,745 contracts, up 0.43 percent over the same period last year. Daily equity options volume had an average of 14,071,380 contracts per day in March, which is 3.94 percent lower than the year-ago level. Year-to-date equity options volume was 852,503,572 contracts, which is 6.48 percent higher than the same point last year when 800,613,173 contracts were traded.
