CHICAGO (HedgeWorld.com) — The Options Industry Council announced a number of records that were made in the remarkable trading year that was 2002.
Last year had the second highest annual volume on record with 710 million contracts, according to the OIC. The highest year-end volume occurred in 2001, with 723 million contracts traded.
Daily equity open interest reached a new single-day high in December. On Dec. 10, the options exchanges reached a new peak with 103 million contracts being purchased, and volume increased each day until it reached a single-day record of 107 million contracts on Dec. 20.
A flurry of other records also occurred during the year. A month-end equity open interest record was also established in November with 97 million contracts, which followed a new month-end equity options volume record with 75 million contracts in July. The busiest single day of trading in 2002 was on July 24 with 5 million contracts, which is the sixth highest trading day since the OIC started keeping track 10 years ago.
December was not as busy as the rest of 2002, still the exchanges remained brisk for the month. December 2002 month-end equity volume was 49 million contracts, while the year before 51 million contracts were traded. The average daily equity volume for the year was 2.8 million contracts, but in December the daily average was only 2 million vs. 2.5 million in December 2001.
OIC's statistics comprise the options trading statistics of the American Stock Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, International Securities Exchange, Pacific Exchange, Philadelphia Stock Exchange, which along with the Options Clearing Corp. fund the non-profit association.
