IN THE BUCKET shops of early 20th-century America, ordinary punters could bet on the direction of share prices with a tiny down-payment. The punters liked this, because it gave them a lot of notional exposure for a minuscule outlay. The bucket shops on the other side of the wagers loved it, too, because hour-to-hour fluctations in the price meant punters often got wiped out. No stock certificates ever changed hands. This was betting, pure and simple. This brings us to the rapid growth of the present-day options market. On average last year almost 30m equity options were traded each day on American exchanges, a rise of more than 50% from 2019, according to OCC, the world's largest clearer of such derivatives. In recent weeks, the volume has regularly risen above 40m a day (see chart).
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