JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and the other three biggest banks on Wall Street are on pace to have their best trading years ever, after a second-quarter boom in activity. In the past, such gargantuan hauls for trading desks have been a sign of turmoil in the markets. For several banks, the previous record-trading year was 2009, when the market was going haywire.

This time around, stocks are near all-time highs, volumes are up and individuals can't get enough action, even as wars and artificial-intelligence exuberance keep investors on their toes. Massive hedge funds, from quant firms to multimanager giants, trade at rapid clips, as do individuals who have crowded into ever more high-octane fare such as short-dated options and turbocharged exchange-traded funds.

Together, JPMorgan, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup are on track to log some $180 billion in trading revenue in 2026 if they continue at their current pace, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. "Clearly markets revenues in general have been quite elevated and strong for some time," JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum told analysts. "The market is clearly extremely risk-on, and we're kind of takers of that."