taxes — 24 answered market questions

Average daily options volume: Section 1256 names against equity options

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Average daily options volume: Section 1256 names against equity options — 4 rows by 3 columns, computed 2026-08-22 from US exchange, SIP and OPRA data.
symbol	tax_treatment	avg_daily_contracts_k
SPY	Ordinary equity option	3834.8
QQQ	Ordinary equity option	2349.7
IWM	Ordinary equity option	941.9
AAPL	Ordinary equity option	833.5

the exact SQL behind every number

SELECT
    replaceOne(underlying_symbol, 'I:', '')            AS symbol,
    if(symbol IN ('SPX', 'XSP', 'NDX', 'RUT', 'VIX'),
       'Section 1256 (60/40)',
       'Ordinary equity option')                       AS tax_treatment,
    round(sum(volume) / countDistinct(date) / 1000, 1) AS avg_daily_contracts_k
FROM global_markets.options_greeks
WHERE date >= today() - 90
  AND symbol IN ('SPX', 'XSP', 'NDX', 'RUT', 'VIX', 'SPY', 'QQQ', 'IWM', 'AAPL')
  AND volume > 0
GROUP BY symbol
ORDER BY avg_daily_contracts_k DESC

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