Retail traders are losing market share: Retail's share of the options market has declined 3 percentage points over the last 4 months, to 17%, the lowest since November 2023. This is a similar decline as the one seen after the Meme Stock Mania peak in January 2021. This is all despite the S&P 500's average daily options trading volume hitting a record 3.5 million contracts in February. Additionally, on February 21st, total US options volume hit a record 25.7 million contracts across the Cboe's 4 options exchanges. Institutional investors are ramping up trading activity.