The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that a new monthly total options trading volume record was set in May with 405,860,027 options contracts changing hands, a 28.93 percent increase compared to May of last year when 314,799,038 contracts changed hands.
This also marks the first time in history monthly volume surpassed 400,000,000 contracts. Additionally, May recorded four of the ten highest volume days for both total options and equity options with May 6 becoming the highest volume day on record with 30,818,984 total options and 28,246,561 equity options traded.
Average daily trading volume for May was 20,293,001 contracts, 28.93 percent higher compared to last year when 15,739,952 contracts were traded each day. Year-to-date volume stood at 1,691,614,252 contracts, up 12.80 percent over the same point last year when 1,499,660,142 contracts were traded. Average daily trading volume for 2010 is 16,584,454 contracts, up 12.80 percent over last year’s 14,702,551 contracts.
OIC also reported that equity options volume in May came in at 370,448,465 contracts, up 25.11 percent over the same period last year. Daily equity options volume had an average of 18,522,423 contracts per day in May, which is 25.11 percent higher than the year-ago level. Year-to-date equity options volume was 1,557,710,476 contracts, which is 11.16 percent higher than the same point last year when 1,401,314,361 contracts were traded.
