On Monday, the Options Industry Council announced that March average daily options volume was 15,578,265 contracts, down 8.91 percent down from the previous year’s 17,102,093 contracts.
Year-to-date average daily trading volume is off 3.2 percent as compared to 2012’s first quarter.?
For March 2013, it had two less?trading days than the previous March and with its ? 311,565,300 options contracts traded, it represented a 17.19 percent decline as compared to March 2012’s 376,246,042 contracts. Year-to-date volume was 993,580,233 contracts; this is off 6.36 percent from last year?s 1,061,109,209 contracts.
March equity options volume was 279,047,146 contracts, down 19.78 percent as compared to March 2012 when 347,851,439 contracts traded. The month’s average daily volume for equity options was 13,952,357 contracts, down 11.76 percent from last March’s 15,811,429 contracts.
Year-to-date equity options volume stood at 898,885,441 contracts; this is off 8.70 percent as compared to the 984,507,776 contracts traded at the same time in 2012.?