CHICAGO, Ill, Sept. 2, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 15,245,495 contracts were traded on average each day in August, a 4.17 percent increase compared to the 14,635,274 contracts in August of last year.
Total options trading for the month was 320,155,407 contracts, just off of last August's volume of 321,976,044 contracts by 0.57 percent. August 2013 had one more trading day than August 2014. Trading volume so far for 2014 stood at 2,758,678,957 contracts, slightly lower by 0.01 percent than the 2,758,963,425 contracts traded throughout the same period last year.
On average, 13,674,353 equity options contracts changed hands each day in August, which is 3.30 percent more than the daily average of 13,237,018 contracts from last August. Equity options volume for August came in at 287,161,404 contracts, down 1.39 percent compared to August 2013 when 291,214,395 contracts were traded. Equity options traded so far this year stood at 2,486,517,289 contracts, off 0.60 percent compared to the 2,501,420,249 contracts traded in the same period last year.
About OIC
The Options Industry Council (OIC) is an industry cooperative funded by the U.S. options exchanges and OCC. OIC's mission is to provide free and unbiased education to investors and financial advisors about the benefits and risks of exchange-traded equity options. OIC delivers its education through the Options Education Program, a structured platform offering live seminars, self-directed online courses, mobile tools, podcasts, webinars and live help. OIC's resources can be accessed online at OptionsEducation.org, via mobile app for iOS, or by phone at 1-888-OPTIONS.
This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/09/prweb12138180.htm