US individual stock options trading at record high... Ants take risks

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Joo Jong-guk = The amount of risk-taking trading by individual investors in the U.S. stock market has risen to the highest level ever. This is an indicator that shows that the ants' tendency to be like fire moths has become more severe than ever.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing data from Karik Lane, an investment manager specializing in options, reported on the 12th (local time) that recent individual stock option trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange reached approximately $700 billion (approximately KRW 935 trillion) per day based on nominal trading value. This is equivalent to 2021, when the market was overheated due to the meme stock craze.

The prices of call options that make profits when stock prices rise are higher than in 2021.

Option trading is a financial derivative product that uses the stock of a specific company as the underlying asset to buy or sell the right to buy or sell that stock at a predetermined price (exercise price) at a certain point in the future. It allows large amounts of money to be traded with much less capital than regular stock trading, so the leverage effect is very large.

The WSJ assessed that individual investors are paying attention to the solid performance of companies, regardless of negative factors such as interest rate hikes, oil prices exceeding $100, and wars in the Middle East, and are willing to take risks in highly volatile markets.

According to a survey by the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII), the proportion of individual investors who expect stock prices to rise over the next six months was 40.3% as of the second week of October. This is the highest since mid-July and is similar to 2021.

The 'meme stock' craze has subsided, but the passion of individual investors has become even hotter.

Ants did not stop 'buying at low prices' even when professional investors were shaken by the global trade war and sold off stocks in large quantities in April 2025. They created new popular AI-related stocks and participated in large numbers in SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO). The buying trend is still continuing.

John Marshall, a partner at Karik Lane, said that more than half of individual stock option trading volume is currently concentrated on short-term contracts with less than two weeks left to expire, which WSJ interpreted as an indication that individuals are comfortable betting on short-term price movements.