Last updated: September 2026. Editorial Team — researched using data from Cboe Global Markets, Citadel Securities, and OptionScout, with reporting from The Motley Fool and Investing.com. See “Sources & Methodology” for our full source list.
Quick Answer
US options trading is on pace to set a record for the seventh consecutive year in 2026. Average daily volume reached 72.8 million contracts in the second quarter, up more than 19% from a year earlier, according to Cboe’s Q2 2026 State of the Options Industry report — the highest quarterly volume ever recorded. Retail investors are driving much of the surge: Citadel Securities’ first-half 2026 data shows retail options activity has “entered a new regime,” trading a record $6.8 billion of options premium per day in June alone. But the enthusiasm comes with a sobering statistical reality worth understanding clearly: approximately 73% of retail options traders lose money over any given 12-month period, according to OptionScout’s 2026 analysis, a figure that drops meaningfully, to roughly 52%, specifically among traders using defined-risk spread strategies rather than simple directional bets.
The Scale of the Record, in Numbers
The Motley Fool’s September 2026 analysis traces the trajectory precisely: 2025 was the sixth consecutive record year for average daily options volume, with roughly 61 million contracts traded per day. Through the second quarter of 2026, daily volume averaged nearly 71 million contracts — putting 2026 well ahead of last year’s already-record pace. John Lothian News’s coverage of Cboe’s official Q2 2026 report confirms the figure precisely at 72.8 million contracts per day, a more than 19% year-over-year increase, with gains led specifically by index and ETF options. Total annual options volume has grown from roughly 4 billion contracts a decade ago to an estimated pace well above 18 billion contracts in 2026, according to Cboe — a genuinely dramatic multi-year expansion in the sheer scale of the options market.
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Retail Traders Are Behind Much of the Surge
Citadel Securities’ first-half 2026 market structure report offers the most granular, striking data on retail’s role in this year’s specific acceleration. May and June “shattered the previous monthly activity records,” with average daily retail cash equity volumes running 65% above 2025 levels and more than double the 2024 average. Nine of the ten most active trading days ever observed on Citadel’s platform occurred within just the past two months, including seven during June alone. Retail options activity specifically has “entered a new regime,” according to Citadel’s report, trading a record roughly $6.8 billion of options premium per day in June — and June is on track to become the strongest month in the firm’s history, with daily purchases running nearly four times last year’s average. June 12 marked the single largest day of retail net buying ever observed on Citadel’s platform, surpassing the previous record by 50%.
A Genuinely Notable Buy-the-Dip Pattern
Citadel’s data reveals a specific behavioral pattern among retail traders in 2026 worth understanding: retail investors purchased nearly 3.5 times their average daily amount on days when the S&P 500 (SPX) fell — described by Citadel as the strongest “buy-the-dip” behavior in the firm’s entire dataset. Even on days when the SPX rallied, retail traders continued buying nearly 1.5 times the daily average, suggesting a consistently bullish retail posture regardless of near-term market direction, rather than a pattern that only shows up during pullbacks specifically.
Same-Day Options Have Become the Dominant Instrument
One structural shift in how options are being traded deserves specific attention: zero-days-to-expiration (0DTE) options — contracts that expire the same day they’re traded — have become genuinely dominant. Citadel’s report states that one out of every three listed options traded in the US now expires the same day, roughly doubling 0DTE’s market share since daily expirations first launched across all trading days in 2022. Investing.com’s analysis of the same Q2 2026 Cboe data adds a notable nuance to this trend, though: while record volume was being set, the average SPX 0DTE trade size kept getting smaller. Investing.com’s read on that combination: “smaller trades look like smaller traders.” Cboe’s own report supports that reading, noting accounts under $25,000 in capital got busier again in Q2, with SPX 0DTE volume nearly tripling since the start of 2024, and the exchange suggesting the 2025 repeal of the Pattern Day Trader rule may have contributed to that specific rebound in smaller-account activity.
Where Volume Is Actually Concentrated
Cboe’s Q2 2026 report also details exactly which underlying assets dominate the current options volume. S&P 500 Index (SPX) options accounted for 81% of all index options trading in the quarter, while SPY represented 42% of ETF options volume — both genuinely striking concentration figures. Among individual stocks, Nvidia and Tesla topped the single-stock options leaderboard, each capturing 9% of single-stock volume, followed by Apple at 3% — a pattern that closely tracks the broader concentration of retail and institutional attention in a handful of high-profile, high-volatility mega-cap names.
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The Sobering Win-Rate Reality
This is the part of the record-volume story that’s easy to skip past amid the excitement of record numbers, but it’s genuinely important context for anyone considering joining the surge. OptionScout’s 2026 report offers a specific, data-driven breakdown: directional long call and put buyers — the simplest, most common way retail traders speculate with options — have an average win rate of just 35-40%. Premium sellers running defined-risk spreads (strategies like credit spreads and iron condors that cap both potential profit and potential loss) win 55-65% of the time, a meaningfully better track record. Approximately 73% of retail options traders lose money over any given 12-month period, according to OptionScout, but that figure drops to roughly 52% specifically among traders using defined-risk spread strategies rather than simple directional buying. OptionScout’s analysis also finds analytics-assisted traders outperform purely discretionary traders by 12-18 percentage points on risk-adjusted returns — a meaningful gap suggesting that structured, data-informed approaches genuinely outperform pure intuition in this specific market.
What Options Growth Means for Cboe and Exchange Operators
The Motley Fool’s analysis frames this volume growth in terms of what it means for the exchanges that operate these markets specifically: Cboe achieved another record fiscal quarter, driven directly by rising retail trading and options demand. The exchange is also planning to launch 23/5 trading in December 2026, allowing users to trade 23 hours a day, five days a week — a structural change that could help boost trading volumes further by allowing investors to react to overseas headlines without waiting for the standard US market open.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did options trading volume grow in 2026?
Average daily volume reached 72.8 million contracts in Q2 2026, up more than 19% year-over-year and the highest quarterly volume ever recorded, marking a seventh consecutive record year.
How much of options volume is driven by retail traders?
Retail investors traded a record roughly $6.8 billion in options premium per day in June 2026, with retail cash equity volumes running 65% above 2025 levels, according to Citadel Securities.
Do most retail options traders make money?
No. Approximately 73% of retail options traders lose money over any given 12-month period, according to OptionScout, though that figure drops to about 52% among traders using defined-risk spread strategies instead of simple directional bets.
What are 0DTE options and how popular are they?
Zero-days-to-expiration (0DTE) options expire the same day they’re traded. They now account for one out of every three listed options traded in the US, roughly double their share since 2022.
Sources & Methodology
This article draws on primary data from: Cboe Global Markets’ Q2 2026 State of the Options Industry report; Citadel Securities’ 1H 2026 Market Structure & Flows report; OptionScout’s 2026 Retail Options Trading Statistics report; The Motley Fool’s September 4, 2026 analysis of US options volume trends; and Investing.com’s analysis of record options volume and shrinking trade sizes. Figures reflect the most recently published data as of this article’s last-updated date.
This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Options trading involves substantial risk and is not suitable for all investors.