Articles Marketmedia

Options Volumes Surge in April

Written by Terry Flanagan | May 2, 2018 12:09:35 PM

OCC CLEARED CONTRACT VOLUME UP 27 PERCENT IN APRIL

Equity options volume up 32 percent in April and average daily volume up 30 percent year-to-date
ETF options volume up 27 percent in April and average daily volume up 33 percent year-to-date
Securities lending activity up 25 percent in April and 26 percent year-to-date

CHICAGO (May 1, 2018) – OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization, announced today that total cleared contract volume in April reached 405,853,179 contracts, a 27 percent increase from April 2017 volume of 320,547,848 contracts and marking the highest April on record. OCC's year-to-date average daily cleared contract volume is up 29 percent from 2017 with 22,026,812 contracts compared to 17,027,383 contracts in 2017.

Options: Overall exchange-listed options volume reached 398,481,297 contracts in April, up 29 percent from April 2017. Equity options volume reached a total of 356,177,370 contracts, a 32 percent increase from April 2017. This includes cleared ETF options volume of 164,495,446 contracts last month, a 27 percent increase over April 2017 volume of 129,366,338 contracts. Index options volume was up five percent with 42,303,927 contracts in April.

Futures: Futures cleared by OCC reached 7,371,882 contracts in April, down 32 percent from April 2017. OCC’s year-to-date average daily cleared futures volume was 498,911 contracts, six percent less than 2017.

Securities Lending: OCC's securities lending CCP activity was up 25 percent in new loans from April 2017 with 221,744 transactions last month. Year-to-date stock loan activity increased 26 percent from 2017 with 915,802 new loan transactions in 2018. The average daily loan value at OCC in April was $183,505,813,710.

For 2018 monthly exchange market share information, click here.

April 2018 Total Contract Volume April 2017 Total Contract Volume Apr Total Contract % Change vs. Apr 2017 YTD Avg. Daily Contract 2018 YTD Avg. Daily Contract 2017 YTD Avg. Daily  Contract % Change vs. YTD 2017
Equity Options 356,177,370 269,566,040 32.1% 18,907,939 14,508,001 30.3%
ETF Options 164,495,446 129,366,338 27.2% 8,752,074 6,565,141 33.3%
Index Options 42,303,927 40,113,009 5.46% 2,619,962 1,988,919 31.7%
Total Options 398,481,297 309,679,049 28.7% 21,527,901 16,496,920 30.5%
Total Futures 7,371,882 10,868,799 -32.2% 498,911 530,463 -5.9%
Total Volume 405,853,179 320,547,848 26.6% 22,026,812 17,027,383 29.4%

Media Contact:
Angela Kotso
312-322-6267
akotso@theocc.com

About OCC
OCC is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization and the foundation for secure markets. Founded in 1973, OCC operates under the jurisdiction of both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a Derivatives Clearing Organization. Named 2018 Best Clearing House by Markets Media, OCC now provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 19 exchanges and trading platforms for options, financial futures, security futures, and securities lending transactions. More information about OCC is available at www.theocc.com.