CBOE Global Markets today reported its April monthly trading volumes and it showed a big jump in the options and futures average daily volume (ADV) when compared to the same month last year.
The Options ADV was up by 7% and futures ADV was up by a whopping 78% when compared to April of 2020. This is generally in line with the trading volumes reported by various exchanges and brokers over the last few months which have been showing a big pick over last year when the world was in the middle of a pandemic.
The total traded volume in FX showed an increase of 6% when compared to April 2020 while it showed a big drop of 22.9% when compared to the previous month of March 2021. Likewise, the FX ADV showed an increase of 6% when compared to the same month last year while it showed a drop of 19.4% when compared to March 2021.
The drop in the volumes when compared to the previous month can be attributed to the generally slow markets and also due to the holiday period that has begun in certain areas. The pandemic continues to remain a concern though it has been largely controlled in the US and many other parts of the world. Many retail traders have begun to loosen their purse strings and have started to invest and trade again but still the volumes are not as high as they can be.
The risk apetite continues to remain low for certain sections of the traders and this is the reason why the trading volumes show a lot of fluctuation month on month during this year. Again, this is a common phenomenon seen all across the markets and around the world and this is not specific to CBOE.
CBOE would be looking to boost their volumes and their revenue in the coming months as they begin to aggresively expand into the other markets. Last month, they announced their entry into Japan and Australia through the acquisition of Chi-X Asia Pacific which is a major market solutions provider in the APAC region. This would provide CBOE access to a whole new lot of securities and ETFs and the effect of this acquisition is likely to be seen soon.
CBOE would also be hoping that with the pandemic receding in a slow manner, it would be able to see further growth in risk around the world which would in turn push up the trading volumes.
