"For the 13th time in 14 years, option trading volume grew in 2005 at a record pace, and it's beginning to exhaust superlatives and test the thesaurus. More than 1.5 billion options traded in the U.S., a 27% jump from 2004. These included nearly 1.37 billion stock options (up 26%), and about 135 million index options (up 38%), according to the Options Clearing Corp. The 10 busiest trading days in history? They all occurred in 2005."
Top 20 Contracts by Volume Contract Jan-Oct 2004 Jan-Oct 2003 % Change Kospi 200 Options, Kofex 2,132,927,476 2,344,348,761 -9.00% 3-Month Eurodollar Futures, CME 247,718,520 176,361,117 40.50% Euro-Bund Futures, Eurex 195,699,439 214,467,656 -8.80% TIIE 28 Futures, MexDer 186,906,075 134,430,421 39.00% 10-Year T-Note Futures, CBOT 160,073,835 123,358,522 29.80% E-mini S&P 500 Index Futures, CME 140,458,381 139,066,299 1.00% Euro-Bobl Futures, Eurex 133,045,148 130,371,815 2.10% 3-Month Euribor Futures, Euronext.liffe 132,810,763 118,930,184 11.70% 3-Month Eurodollar Options, CME 111,341,766 87,336,980 27.50% Euro-Schatz Futures, Eurex 103,256,554 101,711,955 1.50% DJ Euro Stoxx 50 Futures, Eurex 102,456,944 98,977,433 3.50% 5-Year T-Note Futures, CBOT 85,015,711 60,575,563 40.30% Interest Rate Futures, BM&F 83,941,641 46,182,996 81.80% E-mini Nasdaq 100 Futures, CME 65,649,183 56,979,864 15.20% DJ Euro Stoxx 50 Options, Eurex 60,997,468 52,350,174 16.50% T-Bond Futures, CBOT 59,660,853 53,862,923 10.80% CAC 40 Index Options, Euronext.liffe 55,469,535 63,085,682 -12.10% No. 1 Soybean Futures, DCE 50,736,606 48,317,669 5.00% 3-Month Euribor Options, Euronext.liffe 47,653,833 51,793,446 -8.00% 10-Year T-Note Options, CBOT 47,493,994 35,474,873 33.90%