CHICAGO, IL — (Marketwire) — 01/03/12 — The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 320,324,954 total options contracts were traded in December, which is a 6.12 percent decrease compared to December 2010 volume of 341,207,420 contracts.
Total options trading volume for 2011 came in at 4,562,748,194 contracts, surpassing last year-s record by 17.02 percent when 3,899,068,670 total options contracts were exchanged. Equity options volume was 4,224,604,529 contracts, 17.01 percent higher than the 3,610,436,931 contracts traded the previous year.
Trading volume in 2011 marks first time volume topped 4 billion contracts in a single year and the ninth consecutive year of annual record volume.
Furthermore, 2011 brought six of the ten highest volume days and the first time options trading surpassed 40 million contracts in one day. Last year also saw $1.5 trillion in options premium change hands, the fifth consecutive year above $1 trillion and the second highest amount after 2008-s $1.9 trillion.
The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) also reported these volume highlights for the month of December:
December equity options volume was 298,701,504 contracts, 6.79 percent down compared to the 320,465,567 contracts in the previous December.
December average daily total options volume was 15,253,569 contracts compared to 15,509,428 contracts in December 2010, 1.65 percent lower.
Month-end open interest for December 2011 was 292,858,799 contracts vs. December 2010 with 299,651,052 contracts, down by 2.26 percent.
In addition to hitting new annual volume records, these records were set last year.
August 8 with 41,535,560 contracts
August 8 with 37,972,071 contracts
August with 550,049,407 contracts
18,106,144
16,764,304
More details on historical options trading data are available at .
OIC is an industry cooperative funded by BATS Options, BOX Options Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, C2, International Securities Exchange, NASDAQ OMX PHLX, NASDAQ Options Market, NYSE Amex Options, NYSE Arca Options and OCC. OIC was formed in 1992 to educate investors and their financial advisors about the benefits and risks of exchange-traded equity options. OIC-s resources include: Investor Services live help at 1-888-OPTIONS, educational websites at , and , live seminars throughout the continental United States and Canada, instructional DVDs and educational literature.
Media Contacts:
Jim Binder
312-322-9853
Angela Kotso
312-322-6267