The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) announced that cleared trading volume in options on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) totaled 1,079,425 contracts on Thursday, May 18. This marks the first time ever that single day volume in SPX options has topped the one million contract threshold. The previous SPX single day volume record was set on February 17, 2006 when 943,566 contracts were traded at CBOE.
Through the end of April, total year-to-date volume in SPX options was 28,276,312 contracts traded, 36% ahead of last years record pace. Average daily volume thus far in 2006 has been 349,090 contracts per day. At the end of trading yesterday, open interest stood at 7,647,324 contracts.