Top 15 Stocks by Options Volume in Individual Years 2008-2025
This page is an overview of US stock option market history 2008-2025. For each year, it lists top 15 stocks by options volume, plus a short commentary on how the rankings reflect the macro environment and prevailing investment themes (and notable single name stories) at those times. The older year rankings are also a good reminder of survivorship bias.
See also top stocks by options volume in 2026 (year-to-date).
Individual Years 2008-2025
Note that the figures are the average daily number of option contracts traded, not notional value or option premium. Since stocks have different share prices, the same number of contracts can represent very different economic exposures. Moreover, some stocks underwent stock splits, reverse splits, or other corporate actions that affected their option contracts. Therefore the figures are not perfectly comparable across stocks or over time. They should be viewed primarily as a measure of the relative intensity of options trading and the changes in prevailing investment themes.
Jump to: 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025
2008
Stock options volume in 2008 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 81,403 = Apple Inc 2. C = 77,338 = Citigroup Inc 3. GE = 56,248 = General Electric Company 4. BAC = 47,013 = Bank Of America Corp 5. YHOO = 44,831 = Yahoo Inc 6. MSFT = 43,977 = Microsoft Corporation 7. LEH = 35,952 = Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc 8. JPM = 34,666 = JPMorgan Chase & Company 9. GM = 32,803 = General Motors Company 10. RIMM = 31,280 = Research in Motion Limited 11. WB = 28,948 = Wachovia Corp 12. GS = 28,689 = Goldman Sachs Group Inc 13. INTC = 27,810 = Intel Corp 14. MER = 26,586 = MERRILL LYNCH CO INC 15. CSCO = 26,442 = Cisco Systems Inc
The year of the Great Financial Crisis, with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the near-failure of much of the US financial system. The dominance of banks in the list is striking: Citigroup, Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan, Wachovia, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch all appear, while three of them (Lehman, Wachovia, and Merrill Lynch) would not survive the crisis as independent companies. General Motors at #9 is another reminder that the crisis had spread well beyond Wall Street, with the US auto industry heading toward its own historic collapse.
2009
Stock options volume in 2009 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. C = 266,822 = Citigroup Inc 2. BAC = 160,704 = Bank Of America Corp 3. GE = 103,891 = General Electric Company 4. AAPL = 53,004 = Apple Inc 5. JPM = 50,670 = JPMorgan Chase & Company 6. WFC = 44,371 = Wells Fargo & Company 7. MSFT = 40,229 = Microsoft Corporation 8. RIMM = 38,347 = Research in Motion Limited 9. GS = 32,378 = Goldman Sachs Group Inc 10. INTC = 30,963 = Intel Corp 11. GM = 27,828 = General Motors Company 12. CSCO = 25,084 = Cisco Systems Inc 13. F = 23,548 = Ford Motor Company 14. AIG = 22,258 = American International Group Inc 15. FCX = 22,236 = Freeport-McMoRan Inc
The financial crisis was still the defining story, but the market was beginning to look beyond the immediate banking collapse toward the economic recession and eventual recovery. Citigroup and Bank of America remained extraordinarily active after their near-failures, while GM and Ford reflected the continuing crisis in the US auto industry. GM entered bankruptcy protection in June.
2010
Stock options volume in 2010 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. C = 191,337 = Citigroup Inc 2. BAC = 99,753 = Bank Of America Corp 3. AAPL = 81,959 = Apple Inc 4. F = 39,375 = Ford Motor Company 5. GE = 34,500 = General Electric Company 6. JPM = 32,335 = JPMorgan Chase & Company 7. MSFT = 30,834 = Microsoft Corporation 8. GS = 29,256 = Goldman Sachs Group Inc 9. INTC = 28,498 = Intel Corp 10. CSCO = 28,047 = Cisco Systems Inc 11. BP = 26,242 = BP plc 12. RIMM = 24,444 = Research in Motion Limited 13. LVS = 23,208 = Las Vegas Sands Corp 14. PFE = 21,462 = Pfizer Inc 15. GOOG = 19,890 = Alphabet Inc - Class C
The market was moving from crisis to recovery, and that shift is visible in the appearance of Las Vegas Sands at #13. Casino stocks had been crushed during the recession but rebounded sharply in 2010 as investors began betting on an economic recovery and, importantly for LVS, continued growth in Macau and the newly opened Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
2011
Stock options volume in 2011 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 119,277 = Apple Inc 2. BAC = 101,741 = Bank Of America Corp 3. C = 97,463 = Citigroup Inc 4. CSCO = 40,128 = Cisco Systems Inc 5. F = 35,389 = Ford Motor Company 6. JPM = 31,140 = JPMorgan Chase & Company 7. MSFT = 31,021 = Microsoft Corporation 8. NFLX = 30,615 = Netflix Inc 9. GE = 30,285 = General Electric Company 10. RIMM = 28,638 = Research in Motion Limited 11. GOOG = 27,229 = Alphabet Inc - Class C 12. INTC = 26,366 = Intel Corp 13. BIDU = 25,196 = Baidu Inc 14. AMZN = 24,910 = Amazon.com Inc 15. LVS = 23,389 = Las Vegas Sands Corp
Apple's re-emergence as the year's most heavily traded stock option underlying captures the changing character of the market, but the more interesting additions were Netflix, Amazon and Baidu. These were increasingly becoming growth option stories in their own right, while the European debt crisis, the US debt-ceiling confrontation and the Japanese earthquake created a very different backdrop from the post-crisis recovery trade of 2010.
Note: Citigroup underwent a 1-for-10 reverse stock split on 9 May 2011, so its historical options volume figures are not perfectly comparable across the pre- and post-split periods.
2012
Stock options volume in 2012 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 254,057 = Apple Inc 2. BAC = 103,436 = Bank Of America Corp 3. FB = 40,682 = Facebook 4. MSFT = 38,099 = Microsoft Corporation 5. C = 37,382 = Citigroup Inc 6. JPM = 37,161 = JPMorgan Chase & Company 7. INTC = 28,783 = Intel Corp 8. GOOG = 27,375 = Alphabet Inc - Class C 9. CSCO = 25,475 = Cisco Systems Inc 10. F = 25,371 = Ford Motor Company 11. AMZN = 25,352 = Amazon.com Inc 12. RIMM = 24,101 = Research in Motion Limited 13. GE = 23,594 = General Electric Company 14. FCX = 21,555 = Freeport-McMoRan Inc 15. NFLX = 20,649 = Netflix Inc
The biggest new story was Facebook, which entered the public markets in May in one of the most anticipated IPOs of the era. Its difficult IPO and subsequent collapse and recovery made it a natural options-trading vehicle, while Apple was approaching the peak of the first great smartphone-driven growth cycle and Netflix was beginning its transformation from DVD company into streaming platform.
2013
Stock options volume in 2013 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 130,860 = Apple Inc 2. FB = 91,360 = Facebook 3. BAC = 90,589 = Bank Of America Corp 4. MSFT = 42,064 = Microsoft Corporation 5. C = 32,833 = Citigroup Inc 6. BBRY = 32,248 = BlackBerry Limited 7. TSLA = 31,109 = Tesla Inc 8. INTC = 27,117 = Intel Corp 9. F = 26,903 = Ford Motor Company 10. JPM = 26,657 = JPMorgan Chase & Company 11. GOOG = 22,896 = Alphabet Inc - Class C 12. CSCO = 22,204 = Cisco Systems Inc 13. JCP = 21,803 = J. C. Penney Company 14. NFLX = 20,935 = Netflix Inc 15. MU = 19,986 = Micron Technology Inc
BlackBerry's appearance at #6 is a particularly good illustration of how options volume can follow a corporate crisis: the former smartphone leader was rapidly losing market share, its BlackBerry 10 turnaround was failing, and takeover speculation added another source of volatility. J.C. Penney was another distressed turnaround story, while Tesla's spectacular rally turned it into one of the market's most prominent battleground stocks.
2014
Stock options volume in 2014 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 219,954 = Apple Inc 2. FB = 102,687 = Facebook 3. BAC = 83,768 = Bank Of America Corp 4. YHOO = 49,220 = Yahoo Inc 5. TWTR = 45,016 = Twitter Inc 6. TSLA = 42,747 = Tesla Inc 7. MSFT = 38,414 = Microsoft Corporation 8. MU = 32,866 = Micron Technology Inc 9. AMZN = 27,601 = Amazon.com Inc 10. NFLX = 27,151 = Netflix Inc 11. C = 26,216 = Citigroup Inc 12. INTC = 24,824 = Intel Corp 13. F = 23,679 = Ford Motor Company 14. PBR = 22,958 = Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. 15. GM = 21,584 = General Motors Company
This was the year when the newer generation of technology and internet stocks increasingly displaced traditional blue chips in the options rankings. Twitter was still a relatively new public company and generated enormous interest around its growth prospects, while Tesla became a major speculative vehicle. At the same time, the collapse in oil prices and the Russia-Ukraine crisis provided a very different macro backdrop later in the year.
2015
Stock options volume in 2015 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 322,934 = Apple Inc 2. FB = 100,887 = Facebook 3. BAC = 86,366 = Bank Of America Corp 4. TWTR = 53,324 = Twitter Inc 5. GE = 51,290 = General Electric Company 6. NFLX = 47,852 = Netflix Inc 7. BABA = 40,956 = Alibaba Group Holding Ltd 8. MSFT = 32,439 = Microsoft Corporation 9. TSLA = 31,836 = Tesla Inc 10. MU = 29,125 = Micron Technology Inc 11. INTC = 27,645 = Intel Corp 12. C = 25,812 = Citigroup Inc 13. AMZN = 25,398 = Amazon.com Inc 14. T = 21,546 = AT&T Inc 15. YHOO = 20,473 = Yahoo Inc
The market was increasingly fascinated by high-growth technology and newly public companies. Alibaba was still a fresh post-IPO story, while Twitter and Netflix remained major speculative names. Meanwhile, the China growth scare, collapsing commodity prices and the Federal Reserve's first rate hike in almost a decade created plenty of uncertainty for options traders.
2016
Stock options volume in 2016 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 205,692 = Apple Inc 2. BAC = 123,356 = Bank Of America Corp 3. FB = 103,695 = Facebook 4. NFLX = 48,057 = Netflix Inc 5. TWTR = 45,007 = Twitter Inc 6. MSFT = 33,135 = Microsoft Corporation 7. BABA = 33,093 = Alibaba Group Holding Ltd 8. C = 32,917 = Citigroup Inc 9. TSLA = 32,700 = Tesla Inc 10. AMZN = 32,216 = Amazon.com Inc 11. VRX = 30,297 = Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc 12. FCX = 24,348 = Freeport-McMoRan Inc 13. GE = 23,670 = General Electric Company 14. MU = 22,021 = Micron Technology Inc 15. INTC = 21,432 = Intel Corp
Valeant's appearance at #11 is perhaps the year's clearest corporate-distress story. The once high-flying pharmaceutical company became engulfed in controversy over its acquisition strategy, pricing practices, accounting and debt load, with its stock collapsing and becoming a major battleground for bulls and bears. The broader year was equally eventful, from the China/oil-driven selloff at the start to Brexit and Donald Trump's surprise election victory.
2017
Stock options volume in 2017 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 174,021 = Apple Inc 2. BAC = 135,054 = Bank Of America Corp 3. FB = 83,683 = Facebook 4. TSLA = 57,065 = Tesla Inc 5. AMD = 57,012 = Advanced Micro Devices Inc 6. NVDA = 53,705 = NVIDIA Corp 7. MU = 51,039 = Micron Technology Inc 8. BABA = 50,621 = Alibaba Group Holding Ltd 9. AMZN = 42,692 = Amazon.com Inc 10. NFLX = 36,513 = Netflix Inc 11. MSFT = 35,782 = Microsoft Corporation 12. GE = 34,368 = General Electric Company 13. C = 30,375 = Citigroup Inc 14. T = 28,420 = AT&T Inc 15. JPM = 27,978 = JPMorgan Chase & Company
The semiconductor stocks tell much of the story here: AMD, NVIDIA and Micron all became major trading vehicles as investors poured into the semiconductor and technology boom. NVIDIA in particular was benefiting from demand for GPUs from data centers and emerging AI applications, while AMD was in the middle of a dramatic turnaround and cryptocurrency mining added another speculative dimension to demand for GPUs.
2018
Stock options volume in 2018 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 176,369 = Apple Inc 2. BAC = 117,888 = Bank Of America Corp 3. FB = 107,783 = Facebook 4. AMD = 90,217 = Advanced Micro Devices Inc 5. MU = 81,314 = Micron Technology Inc 6. GE = 75,711 = General Electric Company 7. BABA = 71,408 = Alibaba Group Holding Ltd 8. TSLA = 68,785 = Tesla Inc 9. AMZN = 66,590 = Amazon.com Inc 10. NFLX = 64,031 = Netflix Inc 11. NVDA = 52,600 = NVIDIA Corp 12. MSFT = 51,757 = Microsoft Corporation 13. TWTR = 37,453 = Twitter Inc 14. INTC = 35,255 = Intel Corp 15. T = 33,094 = AT&T Inc
The appearance of GE at #6 is striking because it was no longer the old blue-chip GE of previous years—it was a major corporate turnaround and distress story. The company was struggling with its power business, accounting and cash-flow problems, its stock fell roughly 56% during the year, and GE was ultimately removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in June. Meanwhile, AMD, Micron and NVIDIA show how strongly semiconductor stocks had become established as options-trading favorites.
2019
Stock options volume in 2019 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 188,243 = Apple Inc 2. AMD = 107,533 = Advanced Micro Devices Inc 3. TSLA = 94,674 = Tesla Inc 4. FB = 93,213 = Facebook 5. BAC = 84,271 = Bank Of America Corp 6. AMZN = 68,162 = Amazon.com Inc 7. NFLX = 66,409 = Netflix Inc 8. MSFT = 65,815 = Microsoft Corporation 9. BABA = 60,218 = Alibaba Group Holding Ltd 10. GE = 59,716 = General Electric Company 11. MU = 50,464 = Micron Technology Inc 12. NVDA = 50,368 = NVIDIA Corp 13. ROKU = 42,791 = Roku Inc - Class A 14. DIS = 38,913 = Walt Disney Co (The) 15. SNAP = 38,184 = Snap Inc - Class A
The rankings increasingly reflect the dominance of high-beta technology and consumer-growth stocks. Roku and Snap are notable additions: both were relatively young companies with highly volatile shares and uncertain business models, making them natural vehicles for speculative options trading; Tesla's resurgence also made it a much larger options story than it had been earlier in the decade.
2020
Stock options volume in 2020 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 416,049 = Apple Inc 2. TSLA = 220,710 = Tesla Inc 3. NIO = 138,640 = NIO Inc 4. AMD = 127,061 = Advanced Micro Devices Inc 5. MSFT = 123,335 = Microsoft Corporation 6. FB = 97,950 = Facebook 7. BAC = 94,870 = Bank Of America Corp 8. BA = 88,043 = Boeing Company 9. AMZN = 74,840 = Amazon.com Inc 10. AAL = 72,123 = American Airlines Group Inc 11. GE = 69,934 = General Electric Company 12. BABA = 67,747 = Alibaba Group Holding Ltd 13. SNAP = 59,106 = Snap Inc - Class A 14. DIS = 52,579 = Walt Disney Co (The) 15. NFLX = 52,079 = Netflix Inc
The pandemic completely changed the market landscape. NIO's sudden appearance at #3 captures the extraordinary speculative interest in electric vehicles and Chinese technology stocks, while Boeing and American Airlines became highly volatile proxies for the collapse and eventual recovery of air travel. The explosive growth in retail participation and zero-commission trading also helped push options activity to a new level.
2021
Stock options volume in 2021 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. AAPL = 508,951 = Apple Inc 2. TSLA = 317,447 = Tesla Inc 3. AMC = 187,353 = AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc - Class A 4. AMD = 147,730 = Advanced Micro Devices Inc 5. NIO = 137,975 = NIO Inc 6. PLTR = 134,087 = Palantir Technologies Inc - Class A 7. F = 127,156 = Ford Motor Company 8. NVDA = 111,747 = NVIDIA Corp 9. FB = 105,112 = Facebook 10. AMZN = 91,599 = Amazon.com Inc 11. MSFT = 87,358 = Microsoft Corporation 12. BABA = 82,726 = Alibaba Group Holding Ltd 13. BAC = 68,627 = Bank Of America Corp 14. SNAP = 64,323 = Snap Inc - Class A 15. PFE = 64,319 = Pfizer Inc
The meme-stock phenomenon became impossible to miss. AMC's appearance at #3 was part of the extraordinary retail-driven trading wave that also engulfed GameStop, BlackBerry and other heavily shorted stocks; the combined options activity in several of these names exploded in early 2021 as social media became a major force in market behavior.
Palantir's appearance is another sign of the new market environment: newly listed, high-growth and heavily discussed companies had become major options vehicles almost immediately.
2022
Stock options volume in 2022 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. TSLA = 481,426 = Tesla Inc 2. AAPL = 418,013 = Apple Inc 3. AMZN = 230,296 = Amazon.com Inc 4. NVDA = 178,110 = NVIDIA Corp 5. AMD = 175,657 = Advanced Micro Devices Inc 6. META = 152,762 = Meta Platforms Inc - Class A* 7. AMC = 117,462 = AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc - Class A 8. F = 107,090 = Ford Motor Company 9. MSFT = 98,984 = Microsoft Corporation 10. BABA = 85,442 = Alibaba Group Holding Ltd 11. NIO = 83,285 = NIO Inc 12. BAC = 73,802 = Bank Of America Corp 13. SNAP = 63,854 = Snap Inc - Class A 15. NFLX = 60,760 = Netflix Inc 16. GOOGL = 59,942 = Alphabet Inc - Class A * META includes FB
The speculative excesses of 2020–21 collided with a very different macro environment. Inflation forced the Federal Reserve into its most aggressive tightening cycle in decades, Russia's invasion of Ukraine created an energy shock, and growth stocks suffered a major valuation reset. Yet AMC remained in the top 10, showing that the meme-stock phenomenon had not simply disappeared when the broader market turned bearish.
2023
Stock options volume in 2023 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. TSLA = 693,303 = Tesla Inc 2. AAPL = 293,888 = Apple Inc 3. NVDA = 258,156 = NVIDIA Corp 4. AMZN = 229,016 = Amazon.com Inc 5. AMD = 167,215 = Advanced Micro Devices Inc 6. META = 119,247 = Meta Platforms Inc - Class A 7. MSFT = 113,889 = Microsoft Corporation 8. AMC = 112,132 = AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc - Class A 9. GOOGL = 111,218 = Alphabet Inc - Class A 10. PLTR = 91,017 = Palantir Technologies Inc - Class A 11. BAC = 78,739 = Bank Of America Corp 12. BABA = 67,596 = Alibaba Group Holding Ltd 13. GOOG = 64,831 = Alphabet Inc - Class C 14. MARA = 60,022 = MARA Holdings Inc 15. INTC = 60,000 = Intel Corp
The dominant new story was artificial intelligence. NVIDIA's rise to the top tier of the rankings, together with continued prominence of AMD, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Palantir, reflects the market's sudden enthusiasm for AI infrastructure and applications. MARA's appearance is a reminder that crypto speculation was also returning as Bitcoin recovered, while AMC remained a vestige of the meme-stock era.
2024
Stock options volume in 2024 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. NVDA = 771,602 = NVIDIA Corp 2. TSLA = 538,225 = Tesla Inc 3. AAPL = 243,892 = Apple Inc 4. AMD = 176,428 = Advanced Micro Devices Inc 5. AMZN = 142,615 = Amazon.com Inc 6. PLTR = 129,209 = Palantir Technologies Inc - Class A 7. META = 91,743 = Meta Platforms Inc - Class A 8. INTC = 86,503 = Intel Corp 9. MARA = 80,015 = MARA Holdings Inc 10. MSFT = 77,119 = Microsoft Corporation 11. GOOGL = 73,289 = Alphabet Inc - Class A 12. SMCI = 68,148 = Super Micro Computer Inc 13. SOFI = 68,031 = SoFi Technologies Inc 14. GME = 59,728 = Gamestop Corporation - Class A 15. BABA = 56,629 = Alibaba Group Holding Ltd
The AI boom had become the central equity-market narrative, and NVIDIA's emergence as the most actively traded name is consistent with that shift. Super Micro Computer was a notable addition to top 15. GameStop's return to the list showed that the meme-stock phenomenon could still produce enormous bursts of speculative activity.
2025
Stock options volume in 2025 rank symbol avg_daily_volume company_name 1. NVDA = 873,197 = NVIDIA Corp 2. TSLA = 615,710 = Tesla Inc 3. AAPL = 234,352 = Apple Inc 4. PLTR = 217,169 = Palantir Technologies Inc - Class A 5. AMD = 172,981 = Advanced Micro Devices Inc 6. AMZN = 169,324 = Amazon.com Inc 7. MSTR = 157,815 = Strategy Inc - Class A 8. INTC = 147,719 = Intel Corp 9. SMCI = 128,607 = Super Micro Computer Inc 10. GOOGL = 113,755 = Alphabet Inc - Class A 11. META = 113,319 = Meta Platforms Inc - Class A 12. MARA = 103,078 = MARA Holdings Inc 13. SOFI = 97,965 = SoFi Technologies Inc 14. HOOD = 93,164 = Robinhood Markets Inc - Class A 15. OPEN = 84,656 = Opendoor Technologies Inc
The composition of the list shows the further broadening of the speculative-growth trade. Strategy's appearance reflects the renewed institutional and retail interest in Bitcoin, while Robinhood and Opendoor represent the continued importance of retail-driven, high-beta stocks. At the same time, NVIDIA, Palantir, AMD and Super Micro show that AI remained the dominant technology investment theme.