The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that a new monthly total options trading volume record was set in March with 417,188,575 options contracts changing hands, an 18.86 percent increase compared to March of last year when 351,004,878 contracts changed hands.
This marks just the second time in history monthly volume has surpassed 400,000,000 contracts. Additionally, March recorded two of the ten highest volume days for total options (the seventh and eighth spots) and the ninth highest volume day for equity options.
Average daily trading volume for March was 18,138,634 contracts, 18.86 percent higher compared to last year when 15,261,082 contracts were traded each day. Year-to-date volume stood at 1,149,883,317 contracts, up 24.31 percent over the same point last year when 925,000,644 contracts were traded. Average daily trading volume for 2011 is 18,546,506 contracts, up 22.31 percent over last year’s 15,163,945 contracts.
OIC also reported that equity options volume in March came in at 386,202,726 contracts, up 19.33 percent over the same period last year. Daily equity options volume had an average of 16,791,423 contracts per day in March, which is 19.33 percent higher than the year-ago level. Year-to-date equity options volume was 1,072,960,649 contracts, which is 25.86 percent higher than the same point last year when 852,503,572 contracts were traded.