Traders Magazine
By NYSE Research
By all accounts, 2020 was extraordinary for options trading. The year began as a continuation of two straight record years for options volumes and growth that would only continue and accelerate. Case in point: the top 10 multi-list equity and ETF volume days all came in 2020, as did 23 of the top 25 days. Previously, multi-list volume had never breached 40 million contracts, and yet all top 10 volume days for 2020 exceeded that 40 million mark.
This trend has thus far continued into 2021. On January 15, 2021, a new record high was set for daily multi-list volume
(48.3 million contracts), which smashed the previous record set just the week prior by nearly 3 million contracts. Including the new record, the 2nd, 4th, and 6th highest days ever were all recorded in these first weeks of 2021. The highest recorded weekly options volume occurred in the second week of trading in January 2021, and the next highest weekly total occurred in the first week.