The Options Industry Council (OIC) has announced that July options trading volume totaled 112,876,662, a 21.7% increase over the year-ago level of 92,717,461. July marks the tenth consecutive month that total options trading has exceeded 100 million contracts.
Year-to-date options volume stands at 808,764,661, an 18.3% increase over the same period last year. Options trading in the first seven months of 2005 also exceeded the volume recorded in all of 2002 by 4%.
Equity options volume for July reached 103,104,375 contracts (41,629,365 puts and 61,475,010 calls), 21.1% higher than July last year. Year-to-date equity options trading volume is up 17.3% over the same period a year ago.
Every month this year has produced a trading volume increase over the 2004 level, a record-setting year that saw volume pass the 1 billion contract milestone.
“Average daily volume increased by about 1 million contracts per day in 2004 over 2003 and, through the end of July, is now close to 1 million contracts per day better than 2004,” said Michael Walinskas, OIC Executive Director. “The U.S. options industry is seeing significant and sustained growth as investors – both retail and institutional – continue to become more knowledgeable about the many uses for the product.”
In July, equity open interest for July at month-end set a new record at 159,026,409 contracts, an increase of 6% over the previous record set in June. Equity open interest is the total number of options contracts that have not yet been offset, exercised or allowed to expire. And total options volume added a new top-10 record day in July when 7,772,107 contracts traded on the 14th, becoming sixth highest daily volume total ever. Also on July 14 equity options volume reached 6,837,336 contracts, ranking it as the sixth highest equity volume day ever.