Thursday, October 24, 2013

Options on ETFs

From time-to-time, the research desk at ETF Global gets a call or two inquiring about options on ETFs.  Often times, the request is part of a Portfolio Manager’s process and yet at other times, the call is simply to understand if these vehicles exist and if so, are they viable considerations.  So here are a little information and some high level statistics that may help those with interest in this area.

Currently, our database reflects that there are options traded on a few hundred ETFs which reflects just a fraction of the overall universe of ETFs. Interestingly, about 10 of those are actually options on actively managed funds and most of these 10 represent the larger fixed income issues with some exceptions.  Otherwise, you generally find options on the largest and most active ETFs – no big surprise. 

As with many things in the world of ETFs, the landscape is incredibly top heavy.  A quick review of the optionable funds reveals that Volume and Open Interest drop precipitously below the Top 10 ranked funds in these categories. 

Here’s a look at the Top 10 for Open Interest on both sides of the market, as well as, the most recent daily volume - all of which is available in the Scanner at ETFG. Given the concentration of volume and open-interest at the top of these rankings, we encourage you to take a close look at the entire rankings.

  Top 10 Trading Volume
Ticker
Fund Name
Option Volume*
SPY
SPDR S&P 500 ETF
2,615,717
EEM
iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund ETF
564,777
QQQ
Powershares QQQ Trust ETF
545,977
IWM
iShares Russell 2000 ETF
454,588
VXX
iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures̢㢠ETN
257,870
GLD
SPDR Gold Shares ETF
148,687
XOP
SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF
135,028
SLV
iShares Silver Trust ETF
121,052
XLU
SPDR Utilities Select Sector Fund ETF
119,762
FXI
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund ETF
108,435
  *10/23/13
  
  Top 10 Open Interest:  Call/Put/Total*
Ticker
Call Open Interest

Ticker
Put Open Interest

Ticker
Total Open Interest
SPY
7,052,146

SPY
12,520,990

SPY
19,573,136
SPX
4,800,428

SPX
7,885,853

SPX
12,686,281
VIX
4,325,398

EEM
4,230,930

EEM
8,087,736
BAC
4,104,430

BAC
3,376,873

BAC
7,481,303
EEM
3,856,806

IWM
3,331,615

VIX
6,706,514
FB
2,508,613

XLF
2,735,142

IWM
4,735,969
SLV
2,265,857

VIX
2,381,116

XLF
4,259,636
MSFT
2,157,095

QQQ
2,166,146

FB
4,162,244
GLD
2,074,140

VXX
2,131,832

QQQ
4,050,260
QQQ
1,884,114

FB
1,653,631

MSFT
3,631,234
  *10/23/13

There’s plenty to cover here for future posts and we urge you to take a look at the ETFG Scanner.  We will certainly revisit the topic down the road.

Thank you for reading ETFG Daily Perspectives.

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