The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 306,817,994 total options contracts changed hands in July, down 11.89 percent compared to the 348,218,171 contracts traded the previous July. However, at the end of July, year-to-date volume was just off of last year’s by 6.81 percent, coming in at 2,390,920,900 contracts compared to the 2,565,767,148 from July 2011.
Average daily trading volume in July was 14,610,380 contracts, 16.08 percent less than the 17,410,909 contracts in the same year ago period. Year-to-date, an average of 16,376,171 contracts have traded each day, which is down compared to the same point last year when that number came in at 17,694,946 contracts each day.
Equity options volume (options on individual stocks and ETFs) in July was 282,647,406 contracts, down 11.89 percent compared to July of last year when 320,787,641 contracts were exchanged. On average, 13,459,400 equity options contracts changed hands each day during July, representing a 16.09 percent decrease from last July’s daily average of 16,039,382 contracts. Equity options year-to-date volume came in at 2,206,577,718 contracts, down 7.54 percent compared to the 2,386,558,555 contracts traded throughout July of 2011.