OCC Announces 19% Increase In Cleared Contracts For Record Volume Month In March

OCC announced today that total volume reached 421,466,054 contracts in March, representing a 19 percent increase over the March 2010 volume of 353,294,816 contracts. This marks a new record month and quarter for OCC cleared volume and is the second time total cleared volume surpassed 400 million contracts in one month. OCC ended the first quarter with total volume reaching 1,160,299,965 contracts, up 25 percent from 2010.

Options: Exchange-listed options trading increased 19 percent over March 2010 with 417,188,575 contracts and set a monthly trading record 3 percent higher than the previous record set in May 2010. Index options trading rose 13 percent from the previous March. The highest volume day for the month was recorded on March 17 when 28,603,262 contracts changed hands. Two of the top ten highest volume days occurred during the month.

Futures: Futures cleared by OCC reached 4,277,479 contracts in March, up 87 percent from 2010. Index and other futures volume came in at 3,797,711 contracts this month and show a year-to-date average of 154,715 daily contracts. Equity futures contract volume reached 479,402 in March, up 25 percent from March of last year. OCC is averaging 168,010 futures contracts per day in 2011, up 63 percent from 2010.

Securities Lending: OCC's stock loan program, including OTC and AQS, saw a 45 percent increase in new loan activity over March 2010 with 70,766 new loan transactions in March. Year- to-date securities lending activity is up 64 percent from 2010 with 207,358 new loan transactions in 2011. OCC's stock loan program had an average daily notional value of $13,248,850,053.