On Monday, the Options Industry Council (OIC) announced that 335,527,473 contracts traded in November; this is down 2.57 percent as compared to the previous November’s ?344,377,310 contracts traded.
On a positive note, OIC noted in its press release that November trading numbers improved 2012’s volume picture with year-to-date trading volume at 3,691,342,837 contracts, a 12.99 percent fall from the 4,242,423,240 contracts traded through last November.
This compares to the year-to-date trading volume decline of 13.91 percent at the end of October.
November’s average daily trading volume was 15,977,499 contracts, a 2.57 percent decline from the 16,398,919 contracts traded on average each day last November.
Equity options volume (options on individual stocks and ETFs) in November was 304,256,176 contracts; this represents a 4.17 percent decline as compared to the previous November with 317,497,138 contracts traded.
On average, 14,488,389 equity options contracts changed hands each day in November, representing a 4.17 percent fall from the previous November’s daily average of 15,118,911 contracts.
To-date, equity options traded is 3,396,328,378 contracts, down 13.49 percent as compared to the 3,925,903,025 contracts traded in the same period last year.