Options Trading Reaches Record Volumes
By Hal Weitzman in Chicago
Published: June 1 2010 23:13 | Last updated: June 1 2010 23:13
Options trading volumes in the US soared to a record last month as market volatility and the ?flash crash? added to secular growth in the industry.
Nearly 406m listed options contracts were traded in May, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Options Clearing Corporation, up 29 per cent from May 2009.
The OCC, which clears for all eight US options trading venues, also noted that three of the industry?s five highest-volume days occurred last month.
An increasing proportion of options trading volume is thought to come from high-frequency trading firms, a trend that concerns some in the industry.
?We really have to ask ourselves how much of this volume is real, legitimate volume,? said Mark Longo of the Options Insider, an industry website. ?How much of it is customers coming in to make genuine economic trades, versus high-frequency guys?.?.?.?trying to arbitrage between different fee structures at the exchanges??