On Friday, the CBOE Futures Exchange, LLC (CFE?) announced that open interest in futures on the CBOE Volatility Index? (VIX? Index) hit a new all-time high of 438,038 contracts in morning trading.
This figure surpassed the previous record of 431,265 VIX futures contracts traded on September 18, 2012.
Recently, VIX futures set two straight single-day volume records: on Wednesday, January 2, 2013 and Monday, December 31, 2012, when 221,323 contracts and 212,800 contracts traded, respectively.
In 2012, VIX futures trading volume set a new annual record when 23,785,806 contracts traded. This represented a 98 percent increase from the 12,027,955 contracts traded in 2011 and the previous record year.
On Friday, the VIX closed at 13.36, down 0.96%.?
This comes after the fear gauge hit?a record weekly drop of 39 percent last week and then hit six straight days of declines before turning course on Jan. 8.?