OneChicago, LLC reported that 538,267 security futures contracts traded at the Exchange in September, 81% higher than September 2004 volume. The average daily volume in September was 25,632. Year-to-date volume is up 151%. Open interest stood at 1,093,032 contracts on Sept. 30.
OneChicago President Marty Doyle said, “September was our eighth consecutive month of year-over-year volume increases. These gains can be attributed to institutional traders who are in the forefront of understanding how single stock futures can benefit their portfolios.”
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 September were: General Electric Co. (GE1C), SBC Communications Inc. (SBC1C), U.S. Bancorp (USB1C), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY1C) and ChevronTexaco Corp. (CVX1C)
The Exchange lists 207 futures on single stocks, including futures on the DIAMONDS Trust, as well as four OneChicago Select Indexes, a new series of customer-designed narrow-based security index futures launched in July.