CBOE Holdings says February trading higher

CHICAGO (AP) — Futures and options exchange operator CBOE Holdings Inc. said its average trading volume in February was up about 1 percent from the same month last year, but jumped sharply from the month before.

The company said Thursday that had nearly 5.1 million average daily trades in February, up 12 percent from 4.5 million contracts in January.

Companies like CBOE rely on heavy trading volume to collect revenue. The company operates the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the C2 Options Exchange. It said that during February a total of 101.5 million options contracts were traded on those exchanges.

Not all trading was higher on a year-over-year basis. The company said that equity options contracts fell 8 percent from last year to 2.4 million contracts in February. But that was still 8 percent higher than in January.

The company said its index option trading was up 12 percent from last year, with 1.2 million contracts, and up 18 percent from January.

CBOE also said that February was the second most-active trading month for its subsidiary, the CBOE Futures Exchange. Volume of 1.34 million contracts was 70 percent higher than the same month in 2010.

CBOE shares rose 31 cents to close at $27.88.