US regulated market sees strong growth

The International Securities Exchange (ISE) became the latest US derivatives exchange to post record average daily trading volumes in January.

The IntercontinentalExchange already reported record trading levels for January, with its notional volume of daily trades reaching $4.3 billion on January 9, a 75% increase on the exchange’s average in December, which was its busiest month last year. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange also said January was its busiest month to date, with the number of contracts traded up 40% compared with January 2001.

ISE’s average daily volume during January was 537,932 contracts, an increase of 41% from the last business quarter, which ended in October 2001. ISE also established new daily volume records on four occasions during the month. The highest volume day was January 30, when 821,115 contracts were traded.

ISE is now the third largest options exchange in the US. ISE’s market share in its listed products, comprising 469 issues, averaged 19.5% in January, and its market share in all listed options averaged 15.7%. This compares to 8.2% and 3.2% respectively for January 2001.