OneChicago, LLC has reported that 399,415 security futures contracts traded at the exchange in August, 472% higher than August 2004 volume. The average daily volume in August was 17,366. Year-to-date volume is up 169%.
Open interest reached a record of 1,335,410 contracts August 18, ahead of the August 19 contract expiration.
Each single stock futures contract is equivalent to 100 shares of the underlying stock or exchange-traded fund. The top five single stock futures contracts by volume in August were: Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK1C), Bank of America (BAC1C), Coca-Cola Co. (KO1C), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ1C) and Intel Corp. (INTC1C).