ISE’s July trades rise 55.8%

Average daily trading volume on The International Securities Exchange (ISE), a New York-based trading exchange hit 3.6 million contracts in July 2007, a 55.8% increase on the 2.3 million traded in the same period last year.
By None

Average daily trading volume on The International Securities Exchange (ISE), a New York-based trading exchange hit 3.6 million contracts in July 2007, a 55.8% increase on the 2.3 million traded in the same period last year.

Average daily trading volume in equity options contracts increased 54.4% to 3.5 million contracts for the month. Average daily trading volume in index options contracts reached 100,000 contracts a day, an increase of 155.0% over the same period last year. Total equity and index options volume for the month increased 63.6% to 75.1 million contracts from 45.9 million contracts in the same period in 2006.

On a year-to-date basis, average daily trading volume of equity and index options increased 23.8% to 2.9 million contracts compared with 2.4 million last year. Total year-to-date equity and index volume through July 2007 increased 23.8% to 427.5 million contracts from 345.4 million contracts in the same period last year.

ISE says its market share statistics continue to be negatively affected by trading activity related to dividend trades among certain options market makers. The exchange explains that these trades temporarily inflate and distort trading volume and market share when transacted. If the volume from the largest dividend trades were excluded from the data, the exchange says its market share of equity options for the month of July would increase to 30.7% from 30.5%, an increase of 0.2 market share points.

On a year-to-date basis, ISE’s market share would increase to 31.3% from 30.5%, an increase of 0.8 market share points, if the volume from the largest dividend trades were excluded. The exchange believes that exclusion of dividend trades from total industry volume data presents a more relevant measure of the relative trends in its business.

«