Retail Active in AI Infrastructure; Growth in Zero-Day Options Volume
Jun 12, 2026
Retail Active in AI Infrastructure; Growth in Zero-Day Options Volume
Highlights & Recent Developments
- Industry equity activity remained strong, with average daily notional traded rising 45% year-over-year to $1.08 trillion
- Retail trading on MEMX was active in AI infrastructure names (INTC, MU, NVDA, SNDK, AMD, MRVL)
- Industry options volume was up 34% year-over-year to 67.2 million contracts per day and MEMX Options was up 50% year-over-year
- 0DTE volume in nine stocks increased 219% from January to May, contributing to options growth
- MEMX Options market share improved to 4.1% of total and 7.9% of regular electronic
- OPRA SIP plans to start trading two hours earlier, at 7:30am versus 9:30am, on July 13, 2026
- On July 1, the Option Regulatory Fee (ORF) will be calculated based on where customer options trades are executed, rather than all customer contracts cleared by the member firm
Equities Exchange Highlights
Average daily equity notional traded across the industry was $1.08 trillion in May, marking the fourth month in the last five with volumes exceeding $1 trillion. MEMX notional traded increased to $17.4 billion, up 33% year-over-year.
In May, retail trading on MEMX remained concentrated around the AI infrastructure buildout, with flows extending beyond core GPU names into the broader semiconductor and data-center ecosystem. Core AI names including INTC, NVDA, and AMD continue to lead activity. Memory exposure through MU and SNDK, networking and interconnect plays such as MRVL and AVGO, and foundry exposure via TSM are also seeing high retail participation. Additional activity in optical connectivity and power-efficiency names, including LITE, NVTS and OKLO, reflect continued interest in AI-related infrastructure demand. Elevated trading volume in leveraged ETPs such as TQQQ, SOXL, and TSLL also highlights strong retail participation in high-beta technology and semiconductor exposure.
Options Exchange Highlights
Industry option volume (excluding indexes) increased 34% year-over-year to 67.2 million contracts per day in May. MEMX Options was up 50% to 2.7 million contracts traded.
Activity in zero-day-to-expirations (0DTE) options continues to contribute to industry volume growth. Figure 4 shows daily expirations for the most active option ETFs — SPY and QQQ — along with nine individual stocks: TSLA, NVDA, AAPL, AMZN, MSFT, META, GOOGL, IBIT, AVGO. Recall that in February, these stocks added Monday and Wednesday option expirations in addition to the standard weekly Friday expirations. 0DTE activity in these 11 securities accounted for nearly 22% of industry volume in May.
In May, 0DTE volume accounted for nearly 65% of SPY and QQQ volume, compared with nearly 63% in January. For the nine stocks, 0DTE accounted for 33% of volume in May, up from 15% in January. 0DTE volume in the nine stocks increased 219% from January (1.21 million) to May (3.87 million), compared to only a 1% increase in overall industry volume.
Volume increased significantly on 0DTE days: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On those days, 0DTE activity typically accounted for more than 40% of daily trading volume.
MEMX Options market share improved to 4.1% of total and 7.9% of regular electronic in May 2026.
