After reaching new volume heights in 2011, 2012 represented the options industry’s ?second highest annual volume on record with 4,003,871,308 contracts. This came in behind 2011’s top year with?4,562,748,194 total options contracts–12.25 percent higher than 2012’s figures.?
With this year’s total options number, it marked the second time annual volume surpassed 4 billion contracts.
By August, the year had been pretty set to reach this second place milestone thanks to an OIC estimate. This came from August 2012 total options volume of 301,936,920 contracts vs. 2011’s 550,049,407 contracts.
While this had represented an all-time high, year-over-year, volume had fallen 43.47%. But no need for concern, it was just one month out of 12.
Throughout the year, options volume saw monthly declines with the exception of May recording an increase and August incurring the biggest fall.
Here’s a month-by-month look:
- December – Down 12.25%
- November – Down 2.5%
- October – Down 7.05%
- September – Down 6.99%
- August – Down 43.47%
- July – Down 11.89%
- June – Down 12.63%
- May – Up 5.07%
- April – Down 4.7%
- March – Down 9.8%
- February – Down 1.34%
- January 11.38%
Equity options volume for 2012 was 3,681,820,659 contracts, a 12.85 percent decline from 2011’s 4,224,604,529 contracts.
In addition, 2012 saw $1.36 trillion in options premium change hands–a sixth straight year above $1 trillion and the third greatest amount after 2008?s $1.9 trillion.
The exchanges also saw annual average daily volume (ADV) declines and told the following stories from their December 2012 volume releases:
CME: CME Group 2012 ADV Falls 15%, December ADV Rises 1%
ISE:?ISE Sees 2012 ADV Fall 18.1%
CBOE:?CBOE Trading Volume Hits One Billion Mark for Fifth Year
NYSE Euronext:?December NYSE Euronext Options ADV Fell 1.2%, Down 11.6% Year-Over-Year
BATS:?BATS GLOBAL MARKETS SETS FULL-YEAR MARKET SHARE RECORDS?IN ALL BUSINESS SEGMENTS
BOX:?BOX Price Improvement Activity for December
At day number 14 of this new year, it may be too early to tell what type of year 2013 will be but if history has anything to do with it, it’s likely to be a good one.?