the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization, announced today that total cleared contract volume in October reached 451,300,066 contracts, a 20.5 percent decrease compared to last October. OCC’s year-to-date average daily cleared contract volume is 19,728,721 down 4.7 percent compared to 2018’s record-breaking pace. Options: Overall exchange-listed options volume reached 444,785,648 contracts in October, down 19.9 percent from 555,628,831 in 2018. Equity options volume reached a total of 402,970,144 contracts, an 18.1 percent decrease from October 2018. This includes cleared ETF options volume of 165,115,166 contracts last month, a 28.5 percent decrease, compared to the October 2018 volume of 230,928,177 contracts. Index options volume was down 34 percent with 41,815,504 contracts in October, with a year to date average daily volume of 1,931,267. Futures: Futures cleared by OCC was 6,514,418 contracts in October, down 46.6 percent from October 2018. OCC's year-to-date average daily cleared futures volume is 314,216 contracts, 25.4 percent lower than 2018. Securities Lending: OCC's securities lending CCP activity decreased by 25.4 percent in new loans from October 2018 with 104,033 transactions last month. Year-to-date stock loan activity has decreased 4.73 percent from 2018 with 1,106,839 new loan transactions in 2019. The average daily loan value at OCC in October was $72,401,494,380 a decrease of 11.8 percent compared to last October. For 2019 monthly exchange market share information, click here. October 2019 Total Contract Volume October 2018 Total Contract Volume October Total Contract % Change vs. 2018 YTD Avg. Daily Contract 2019 YTD Avg. Daily Contract 2018 2019 Avg. DailyContract % Change vs. 2018 Equity Options 402,970,144 492,277,954 -18.1% 17,482,788 18,065,214 -3.2% Index Options 41,815,504 63,350,877 -34.0% 1,931,267 2,211,812 -12.7% Total Options 444,785,648 555,628,831 -19.9% 19,414,055 20,277,026 -4.3% Total Futures 6,514,418 12,204,713 -46.6% 314,216 421,033 -25.4% Total Volume 451,300,066 567,833,544 -20.5% 19,728,271 20,698,059 -4.7%
markets like these are just very bad for wall street and everyone involved in financial services. its a trump tax we all pay. for the farmers.
The VIX is consistently making new lows, and SPX is making new highs. There's no room for insurance sellers in a market melting up towards a catastrophic fall back to the mean.
I suspect it's just due to uncertainty over the trade tariffs and maybe weakening global economic data.