Market Musings: Volumes

How Tariff Driven Equity and Options Volumes Ranks Over Time

Key Takeaways

Inflation concerns, increasing recession risk, and, importantly, the uncertainty over tariff policy and the potential for retaliatory trade wars continue to weigh on – not only U.S. but global – markets. Uncertainty has been the only certainty this year. And, after a weekend announcement by President Trump that the aggressive tariff policy will remain, volumes moved even higher.

Equities: Recently, equity volumes almost hit 30 billion shares. This came after another recording setting day last Friday at 26.9 billion shares. In 2025, there have been no days when equity volumes were under 13 billion shares. We have spent most of the year between 14 to 15 billion shares, at 45% of trading days, and 8% of trading days surpassed 20 billion shares.
Options: Last Friday, options volumes crossed the 100 million contracts level. While yesterday did not reach that level, 67.2 million contracts was the 13th highest volume day over the last two years. We have spent most of the year between 50 to 60 million contracts, at 49% of trading days, and 9% of trading days broke 70 million contracts. Stay tuned, as it is only the beginning of April, with just 65 trading days under our belt.

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