According to newly released Tabb/Hanweck Options Liquidity Matrix covering February's trading activity, the industry averages for bid/offer spread was $0.356, trade size was 15.7 contracts and trade value was $7,463. Specifically, the smallest bid/offer spread went to Cboe C2 ($0.14), most contracts per trade went to OMX PHLX (24.8 contracts) and the largest average trade value went to Cboe ($23,125). Also, in line with February 2017, penny options accounted for 70 percent of the total options volume. I left the link in if you want to look at the entire monthly review.
Thank you for the link. So, perhaps it is true that 70% of options expire worthless? This also says lots of people are using options to gamble?
It's been about 20 - 30% forever, regrettably it really tells you nothing about profitability. It's generally been about 10 - 15% get exercised - this is not driven totally by profitability, but more so by friction and capital. About 60% having closing transaction prior to expiration - many of these are involved in rolls. The quote is always 90% expire worthless which has always been a fiction - about 90% go unexercised which has traditionally be correct. People use the stats. to prove some point, but in reality it's more a comment on friction and capital. In a world with zero friction and unlimited capital - you would in theory - overtime exercise about 50%, however this theoretical world doesn't exist. OCC used to publish this data every month, but at some point they realized it rarely changes. The part that used to be of some interest was the breakdown of puts and calls and how they resolved the open positions. I'm unaware of anyone who does it anymore. The guru on this is Jim Binder at OCC