The Options Insider

CBOE: April Equity Options ADV Falls 31 Percent, VIX Futures See Busiest Month Ever

by | May 2, 2013 | Industry

CBOE Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:?CBOE) reported that April trading volume for options contracts on?Chicago?Board Options Exchange??(CBOE?) and?C2 Options Exchange?(C2SM) and futures contracts on?CBOE Futures Exchange, LLC?(CFE?) totaled 102.70 million contracts. April average daily volume (ADV) was 4.67 million contracts, up four percent from 4.49 million contracts in March and up one percent from 4.63 million contracts from the previous April. ?

In addition, futures on the CBOE Volatility Index??(VIX??Index), traded on CFE, posted their busiest month ever in April and C2 set all-time monthly total volume, average daily volume and market share records. ?

CBOE Trading Volume

  • CBOE ADV was 4.08 million contracts, down six percent from last April’s 4.33 million ADV contracts but up one percent from?March’s ADV of 4.04 million contracts.
  • CBOE?equity options ADV was 1.45 million contracts, down 31 percent from?April 2012 but off one percent from?March.
  • CBOE?index options ADV was 1.43 million contracts, up 26 percent from last April but down eight percent from March.?
  • SPXpm options, which moved from C2 to?CBOE?in?mid-February 2013, established a new monthly volume record of 170,096 contracts during April and surpasses the previous record of 165,378 contracts in?March 2012.?
  • CBOE ETP options ADV was just less than two million contracts, up 10 percent from last April and up 18 percent from?March.
  • CBOE’s five most actively traded index and ETP options in April: S&P 500??Index (SPXSM) options, CBOE Volatility Index??(VIX??Index) options, Standard & Poor’s Depositary Receipt (SPY) options, iShares Trust – Russell 2000?Index Fund?(IWM) options and iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) options.

CBOE Market Share?

CBOE?market share of total U.S. options industry volume was 24.2 percent in?April 2013, down 1.7 percentage points from?March and down 2.9 percentage points from?April 2012.

If the volume from dividend trades was excluded from industry data for April, the Exchange’s total market share would be 24.5 percent. Exclusion of dividend trades from total industry volume data presents a more relevant measure of the relative trends in the options business.

CBOE Futures Exchange Trading Volume

  • April ranked as the busiest month ever for the VIX futures contract in total volume and ADV.
  • VIX futures volume totaled a record 4,056,760 contracts, surpassing the previous monthly volume record of 3,220,977 contracts traded in?March.
  • April was the first month that VIX futures volume exceeded four million contracts and a fourth consecutive record volume month.
  • VIX futures ADV hit a record 184,398 contracts, surpassing the previous record of 161,176 contracts in?February. ADV increased 119 percent over last April and 14 percent over?March.
  • CBOE Gold ETF Volatility Index security futures volume hit a record 6,120 contracts during the month versus the previous record of 1,619 contracts in?August 2012.

C2 Trading Volume

  • C2 set all-time monthly records for volume and ADV. Volume totaled 8.79 million contracts (ADV at 399,400 contracts). April’s volume and ADV records surpassed the previous records established in?August 2011?when 7.15 million contracts changed hands (ADV at 310,800 contracts).
  • ETP option ADV rose 194 percent and 47 percent from?April 2012?and?March, respectively.

C2 Market Share

C2’s April market share of total industry volume was 2.4 percent ? the exchange’s highest monthly market share ever ? up 1.1 percentage points from?April 2012?and up 0.5 of a percentage point from?March.

ETP option market share in April was 5.3 percent, up 3.3 percentage points from last April and up 1.1 percentage points from?March.