CBOE Futures Exchange: Trading Volume In VIX Futures Reaches New All-Time High For Second Consecutive Month

• Average Daily Volume Gains 141% Year-Over-Year
• Total Volume Tops Three Million Contracts For First Time

The CBOE Futures Exchange, LLC (CFE^®) announced today that for the second consecutive month, average daily volume (ADV), total volume and single-day volume in futures on the CBOE Volatility Index^® (VIX^®) reached all-time highs during February 2013.  The same records were also set for total exchange-wide trading.        

Average daily volume in VIX futures during February reached an all-time high of 161,176 contracts.  This record ADV topped the 66,924 contracts per day in February 2012 by 141 percent and January's ADV of 137,988 contracts, the previous record, by 17 percent. VIX futures experienced its two most-active trading days on consecutive days during the month: 302,278 contracts on February 25 -- the first time that single-day volume topped the 300,000-contract-mark -- and 299,566 contracts on February 26.  The previous single-day volume record for VIX futures was 221,323 contracts on January 2, 2013.    

The 3,062,344 total VIX futures contracts traded during February was an increase of 129 percent from the 1,338,471 contracts traded in February 2012.  February's volume rose six percent from the record 2,897,739 contracts traded in January – even with two fewer trading days during the month.  February was the first time that total monthly volume in VIX futures eclipsed the three-million-contract mark and the sixth consecutive month volume surpassed the two-million-contract mark.     

Total exchange-wide monthly ADV during February reached a new high for a second straight month.  The record 162,514 contracts during the month was a gain of 142 percent from February 2012 ADV of 67,038 contracts and up 17 percent from the ADV of 139,410 contracts in January, the previous record.  CBOE Futures Exchange set new single-day volume records on consecutive days during the month: 302,986 contracts on February 25 and 300,271 contracts on February 26, surpassing the previous high of 226,951 contracts on January 2, 2013.  This was the first time that single-day volume topped the 300,000-contract-mark at CBOE Futures Exchange.         

Exchange-wide trading during February totaled 3,087,775 contracts, up 130 percent from the February 2012 volume of 1,340,758 contracts and an increase of five percent from the previous record of 2,927,613 contracts traded during January. February marked the first time that total volume at CBOE Futures Exchange exceeded three million contracts traded.      

London Hub

CFE's London Hub went live on February 1. The Hub is a cross connection (telephone switch and communication lines) from the Equinix facility in England to the CBOE Command Center at the Equinix facility in New Jersey.  The Hub provides direct access to CFE's trading system and market data, as well as index data made available by Market Data Express.  For additional information on the London Hub, refer to CFE Regulatory Circular RG13-004 at http://cfe.cboe.com/publish/CFEregcirc/CFERG13-004.pdf.