All the big equity cash and futures exchanges reported higher volumes as US sub-prime mortgage worries led to a spike in volatility. Trading in pure volatility products also surged, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) expanded its suite of volatility offerings.
The London Stock Exchange reports that in the five months to August 2007, the average daily numbers of bargains on its Sets electronic order book rose 75% to 551,000, clearing its target level of 480,000 for the full year. Sets trades exceeded a million on three days in August, with the average daily number of deals in the month at a record high of 688,391. For the entire LSE market, total average daily trades went up by more than 30% from July to August, from 719,129 to 943,352 deals. Despite the credit crunch and general market uncertainty, the...
