China News Agency, New York, December 7 (Reporter Wang Fan) US media reported on the 7th that an average of 39 million options contracts were traded in the US every day this year, a record high since the option market was established in 1973.
Among them, the proportion of options transactions involving retail investors has increased sharply, and their impact on the US stock market has become more and more profound.
According to the “Wall Street Journal” report, data from the Options Clearing Company as of the end of November showed that the average daily option trading volume in the United States this year has increased by 35% compared with the same period last year, reaching the highest level in history.
Regulators found that retail investors’ participation in high-risk options trading has surged, reaching 25% of option trading volume. It is relatively easier for them to trade options through some online brokers.
A spokesperson for the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said that the agency is planning to send industry participants a request for comment to obtain feedback on options trading.
The Wall Street Journal said that the main operators of options trading are companies, and the surge in retail options trading has caused concern among regulators.
Such requests for comment are often the first step taken by regulators before considering changes to relevant rules.
Previously, the US Securities and Exchange Commission also issued inquiries to industry participants to discuss whether securities firms should disclose more information when options transactions occur.
Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw said that the rules for option trading were formulated decades ago. At that time, investors had to deal with securities brokers before trading. Nowadays, if investors want to trade options, Just move the mouse.
Taking into account the many changes in the market, the details of the rules of option trading may be adjusted in the future.
In fact, option trading has received wider attention since the beginning of this year, mainly because of the "game station incident."
On January 27, Game Station's share price soared by 134.84% in a single day.
On that day, the stock options transaction value exceeded 50 billion U.S. dollars, much higher than the stock transaction value of approximately 30 billion U.S. dollars.
This case allows more retail investors to learn about derivatives such as options.
According to Bloomberg News, the growth of retail options trading has an increasing impact on the U.S. stock market, and market analysts often need to find some signals from option trading data.
Recently, the U.S. stock market has fluctuated at a high level. With the implementation of the Fed's policy of reducing asset purchases and the forecast of the prospect of interest rate hikes, analytical data shows that the differences of opinion between retail traders and institutional traders are increasing.
An option is a right of choice, a contract between two parties to a transaction, which grants the holder the right to buy and sell securities at a specified price within a specified period of time.
When the buyer of an option chooses to exercise the right, the seller must perform the contract according to the content of the option, but the buyer can also choose to waive the exercise of the right. In this case, only the premium will be lost, and the seller will earn the premium.
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