* Options, futures popular among younger traders - CEO
* Posts 8% growth in half-yearly pretax profit
* Shares gain 4%
(Recasts with comments from CEO call, background)
By Sinchita Mitra
Jan 27 (Reuters) - Online traders are increasingly turning
to options and futures amid high stock prices, dealing platform
IG Group said on Thursday, as an easing in market
volatility slowed its half-yearly profit growth.
Chief Executive June Felix also told Reuters that more
people were trying their hand at other asset classes such as oil
and other commodities.
While client activity and trading volumes have eased from
highs seen during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, retail
investors flush with savings are still looking to make money.
"People are getting more self directed, in terms of taking
control of their own money, the people are younger, the
platforms are better, there is a sense that they want to control
their own destiny," Felix said.
Amid concerns over the bets being taken by some individuals,
IG withdrew a number of riskier equities products in February
last year after a buying frenzy of so-called "meme stocks"
triggered huge swings in some share prices.
Felix said options and futures were popular among younger
traders, and IG had seen in the last three years a 44% jump in
client activity around options and futures in the U.S. market,
versus 18% growth in equity trading over the same period.
Options volumes soared 32.2% to a record 9.87 billion https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-options-trading-boom-burden-some-investing-firms-study-2022-01-12
contracts in 2021, data from Options Clearing Corp showed.
The S&P 500 index, which tracks the biggest U.S.
stocks, gained roughly 27% in value in 2021, but has slipped
about 9% since.
IG was created by spread-betting pioneer Stuart Wheeler in
1974 to let people bet on the price of gold.
The London-listed group posted an 8% rise in pretax profit
to 245.2 million pounds ($329.2 million) for the six months
ended November, compared with 227.8 million pounds a year
earlier, sending its shares more than 5% higher by 1010 GMT.
($1 = 0.7448 pounds)
(Reporting by Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru
Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Mark Potter)