The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 346,037,577 total options contracts were traded in March, which represents a 22.7 percent increase over March 2008 volume of 282,000,233 contracts.
Average daily volume for the month was 15,728,981 contracts, up 11.6 percent compared to 14,100,012 contracts averaged each day in the same period last year. March year-to-date volume stood at 860,315,433 contracts, a decrease of 2.6 percent compared to the same period last year when 883,583,154 contracts were exchanged. Year-to-date daily volume averaged 14,103,532 contracts compared to 14,484,970 contracts averaged during the prior year period which represents 2.6 percent decline.
Equity options saw 322,256,666 contracts change hands, 24.2 percent higher than March 2008 when 259,432,073 contracts were traded. Year-to-date equity options volume was 800,613,173 contracts, compared to 813,022,248 contracts at the same point last year which represents a decrease of 1.5 percent. Daily equity options volume averaged 14,648,030 contracts per day in March, an increase of 12.9 percent over the same month last year when 12,971,604 were averaged.
On March 19, more equity options changed hands than any other day in history, with 27,325,694 contracts traded. That day also marked the second highest total for all exchange-listed options trading when 28,741,004 contracts changed hands.
