BGC's Jared Woodard: ​EWJ Options Activity Spikes Post BoJ Move

Options on the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ) were extremely active on Friday, Oct. 31st after the Bank of Japan surprised markets, announcing it would increase its annual target for enlarging the monetary base to 80 trillion yen (USD724 billion). This was the most active session in EWJ options since June 24, when investors traded more than 418,000 option contracts. The daily volume on Friday was more than 235,000 contracts, or 18.9 times the average one month volume; open interest also rose to the highest level since June.