CHICAGO, Ill, Jan. 2, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 354,607,999 total options contracts were traded in December, which is a 10.74 percent increase compared to the previous December when 320,209,356 contracts were traded.
Total options trading volume for the year stood at 4,265,368,807 contracts, an increase of 3.75 compared to last year's 4,111,275,659 total options contracts exchanged. This marks the fourth consecutive year annual volume was more than 4 billion contracts with 2014 becoming the second highest volume year on record (behind 2011's record volume of 4.6 billion contracts). Equity options volume came in at 3,845,073,167 contracts, 3.20 percent more than the 3,725,864,134 contracts traded in 2013.
Last year also saw $1.2 trillion in options premium change hands, the eighth consecutive year above $1 trillion.
OCC also reported these volume highlights for the month of December:
- December equity options volume was 318,120,627 contracts, 9.70 percent more than the 289,995,333 contracts in the previous December.
- December average daily total options volume was 16,118,545 contracts compared to 15,248,065 contracts last December, up 5.71 percent.
- Month-end open interest for December was 310,600,839 contracts, up 6.38 percent from December 2013 with 291,975,083 contracts.
More details on historical options trading data are available at http://www.OptionsEducation.org.
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.
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