The OCC total cleared contract volume reached 554,842,463 contracts in August, representing a 95% increase over the August 2010 volume of 285,128,314 contracts and marking a new record volume month.
The figure also marks the first time the total cleared volume in a month surpassed a half billion contracts.
The previous monthly volume record was set in March with 421,466,054 contracts, 32% lower than the current record. OCC year-to-date total volume is up 22% with 3,144,352,546 contracts.
Equity options trading rose 91% and index options trading rose 126% compared to the same period last year. During the month, three record trading days occurred in the first eight days in August for a combined total of 117,198,188 contracts. The current daily options trading volume record was set on August 8 with 41,535,560 contracts.
Futures cleared by OCC reached 4,793,056 in August, up 192% year-to-date. Index and other futures volume was up 247% with 4,284,314 contracts. Equity futures volume increased 25% with 507,238 contracts in August. OCC’s YTD total futures volume is up 69% with 28,535,991 cleared contracts.
OCC’s stock loan program, including OTC and AQS, saw a 25% increase in new loan activity over August 2010 with 61,324 new loan transactions last month. Year-to-date securities lending activity is up 31% from 2010 with 523,958 new loan transactions in 2011. OCC’s stock loan program had an average daily notional value of $13,321,571,557.
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