CBOE Trading Volume Reached Records In October

CBOE Trading Volume Reached Records In October

by CBOE.com

The Chicago Board Options Exchange is the largest US options exchange and creator of listed options.  It trades under (CBOE), which includes its CBOE Futures Exchange and other subsidiaries.

[BigTrends.com note:  The growth of options trading continues, as these vehicles are a great way for investors large and small to utilize leverage, diversify and take various positons such as hedges.  This is occurring even while stock trading volume on the whole is not rising (other than ETFs, which continue to grow as well).  Certainly the downmove and volatility we saw in October contributed to this strong rise in options volume (people tend to buy Puts for protection in large numbers when the market falls), but this trend has been ongoing for many years regardless.]

- Volume Averages a Record 7 Million Contracts Per Day - Up 29% from October 2013 and 37% from September 2014
- CBOE, CFE, C2 Establish New Monthly Volume Records
- Index Options, SPX, VIX Options and VIX Futures Set New Records

CBOE Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) reported today that trading volume for options contracts on Chicago Board Options Exchange® (CBOE®) and C2 Options ExchangeSM (C2SM) and futures contracts on CBOE Futures ExchangeSM (CFE®) set an all-time monthly record of 163.08 million contracts in October. Average daily volume (ADV) was a record 7.09 million contracts, a 29-percent increase from October 2013 and a 37-percent increase from September 2014. The new ADV record surpasses CBOE Holdings’ previous ADV high of 6.65 million contracts in August 2011.

CBOE, CFE and C2 each posted all-time record monthly volumes and average daily volumes in October, and several individual products – including S&P 500® Index options and CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX® Index) futures and options – set monthly and daily records.

CBOE Trading Volume:

•    CBOE’s October volume totaled an all-time high for any month – 144.55 million contracts – surpassing the previous record of 144.03 million contacts from August 2011. ADV was a record 6.28 million contracts, a 26-percent increase from October 2013 and a 35-percent increase from September 2014.

•    Index options ADV was a record 2.29 million contracts, a 31-percent increase from October 2013 and a 56-percent increase from September 2014. Index options volume set a new single-day record on October 15, with 4.75 million contracts traded. In S&P 500 Index (SPX) options, October ADV was a record 1.31 million contracts, and on October 15, SPX options set a new daily volume record with 2.69 million contracts traded.

•    Exchange traded product (ETP) options ADV was 1.88 million contracts, a 53-percent increase from October 2013 and a 50-percent increase from September 2014.

•    Equity options ADV was 2.11 million contracts, a six-percent increase from October 2013 and a 10-percent increase from September 2014.

•    The five most actively traded index and ETP options at CBOE in October were options on the S&P 500 Index (SPX), Standard & Poor’s Depositary Receipt (SPY), CBOE Volatility Index (VIX Index), iShares Trust - Russell 2000® Index Fund (IWM) and PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ).

CBOE Futures Exchange Trading Volume and Highlights

•    October was the busiest month ever for trading in VIX futures with just less than 7.5 million contracts traded. October’s record volume topped the previous high of 4.6 million VIX futures contracts traded in August 2014.

•    VIX futures ADV was a record 323,761 contracts, an increase of 78 percent from October 2013 and an increase of 81 percent from September 2014.

•    Through the end of October, year-to-date volume in VIX futures stood at 42.9 million contracts, surpassing the 39.9 million contracts traded for all of 2013.

•    During the month, VIX futures also set single-day and week-long volume records.

Courtesy of CBOE