The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 378,480,506 total options contracts changed hands in January, a 21.48 percent increase from the 311,561,541 contracts traded in January 2010.
January’s trading volume was the second highest monthly total ever recorded, following only May 2010 when nearly 406 million changed hands. Average daily trading volume for January was 18,942,025 contracts, up 15.4 percent from the 16,397,976 contracts in January 2010.
Equity options volume (options on individual stocks and ETFs) in January saw 354,795,514 contracts change hands, 22.8 percent more than in January 2010 when 288,939,483 contracts were traded. On average, 17,739,776 contracts were traded each day throughout January compared to January of last year when an average of 15,207,341 contracts were traded daily, representing a 16.7 percent increase.