TABB Says US Listed Options Volumes Surge on Volatility Spike, Setting Second Highest Monthly Record after August 2011.
US listed options volume surged in October, jumping 35.9% over year-to-date average monthly volume and 34.3% over September 2014 volume.
According to TABB Group?s Andy Nybo, head of derivatives, and Luther Zhao, research analyst who compiles exclusive Options LiquidityMatrix? data, US listed options volumes surged in October, primarily due to the spike in volatility that took VIX above 30 for the first time since 2011.?
Trading totaled 491.4 million contracts for the month, representing a 35.9% increase from the year-to-date average of 361.6 million contracts and a 34.3% jump over September 2014 volume of 365.9 million contracts.?This represents the second highest month on record, only behind August 2011 by 58.7 million contracts.
Volatility as measured by the CBOE Volatility Index??(VIX?) doubled over the span of 5 trading days from Oct. 8 to Oct. 15. There lacks a clear explanation for what drove this move, Nybo points out. While theories range from Ebola to the end of quantitative easing, this remains as one of the more mysterious panics that eludes any specific factor to point fingers at.?
