Nasdaq Records Solid Equity Options Trading in March and Q1 2021

Nasdaq​ has reported monthly volumes for March 2021 as well as quarterly volumes for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, with the exchange operator seeing an uptick across equities, fixed income and commodities.

In the month of March, the number of US equity options contracts traded on Nasdaq was 315 million, representing a 10.9 percent MoM increase compared to 284 million in February and 53.7 percent jump on a yearly comparison. 

Taking a look at the trading volume for European options and futures volume, Nasdaq​ achieved a trading volume of 7.0 million contracts in March 2021. Although this is less than the 12.2 million trading volume posted in March of 2020, it is stronger than the 6.9 million trading volume for the prior month.

During March 2021, $838 billion US Fixed Income was traded on the exchange. Although this is slightly lower than February's trading volume, which was $851 billion, by 1.5 percent, it is higher than the $797 billion trading volume achieved in March of 2020 by 5.1 percent.

For European fixed income, 3.1 million contracts were traded on Nasdaq​ during the month. This represents a rise of 14.8 percent against the previous month, but a drop of 16.2 percent when measured against March of 2020.

55.57 billion US matched equity shares were traded this March on the exchange. Month-on-month, March's trading volume has increased by 13.5 percent, but it is down by 15.3 percent against the 65.60 billion in March of 2020.

Quarterly Volumes for Q1 2021

The US equity options contracts quarterly trading volume on Nasdaq​ in Q1 of 2021 stood at 892 million, which represents a significant rise of 20.4 percent from the previous quarter.

European options and futures volume, however, wasn't that robust in Q1, with 22.2 million contracts traded during the quarter. This is higher than the 17.4 million contracts traded in Q4 of 2020, but much lower than the 28.8 million contracts traded in the same period of the previous year.

US Fixed Income also saw an increase, with the total volume​ for Q1 coming in at $2,494 billion. For European Fixed Income, the trading volume for Q1 is 7.9 million contracts. Furthermore, 152.63 billion US matched equity shares were traded during the first quarter of 2021.