NASDAQ, the New York-based market operator, released its trading volumes for this May on Monday. The firm experienced a reasonably calm month with only minor fluctuations in markets having taken place when compared to the prior month.

In the US Equities Equities Equities can be characterized as stocks or shares in a company that investors can buy or sell. When you buy a stock, you are in essence buying an equity, becoming a partial owner of shares in a specific company or fund.However, equities do not pay a fixed interest rate, and as such are not considered guaranteed income. As such, equity markets are often associated with risk.When a company issues bonds, it’s taking loans from buyers. When a company offers shares, on the other hand, it’s selling pa Equities can be characterized as stocks or shares in a company that investors can buy or sell. When you buy a stock, you are in essence buying an equity, becoming a partial owner of shares in a specific company or fund.However, equities do not pay a fixed interest rate, and as such are not considered guaranteed income. As such, equity markets are often associated with risk.When a company issues bonds, it’s taking loans from buyers. When a company offers shares, on the other hand, it’s selling pa Read this Term options markets, NASDAQ reported that it had handled a total of 140 million contracts. This was a tiny increase on April, equivalent to approximately 1.5 percent growth when the firm finished the month with 138 million contracts in the US equities options markets.

Conversely, in the European options and futures markets, NASDAQ experienced a minute drop in trading last month. The firm reported a total of 7.7 million European options and futures contracts in April and this shrunk to 7.6 million in May.

Dramatic growth in European fixed income

There was a slightly larger shift in the US cash equities markets for NASDAQ. The firm saw a total trading volume of 27.36 billion US matched equity shares in May. This represented a 3 percent month on month increase.

European equity also saw a slight uptick in terms of total trading volume. NASDAQ reported a total of $77 billion worth of European equities trading in April. This increased to $82 billion in May, representing a 6.5 percent month on month increase.

NASDAQ also reported significant increases in the European and US fixed income markets. The US market saw the smaller growth of the two as $1.58 trillion worth of fixed income was traded in April in comparison to $1.24 trillion in April. Trading volume in the European fixed income market grew by 37 percent as the number of contracts traded increased from 1.9 million to 2.6 million.