Spain v Netherlands: Group B - 2014 FIFA World Cup BrazilLast month TOM released their own Dutch market index NL20. Nice for the regular newspapers who have another press release to copy-paste, and some goodies for the rest of the market. Orange sunglasses.

Truth is nobody cares about any new market index, as long as it can’t be traded. See for another irrelevant index the Telegraaf’s AEX DFT Oranje Index (nl). TOM isn’t in the market for launching another fake paper index.

TOM’s index NL20 traded on Euronext

ING will start today with Sprinters based on the NL20. Options and futures on the index will follow shortly – TOM is committed to make this work. Talks with liquidity providers are currently ongoing.

Sprinters are leveraged structured products, also known as Turbo’s (ABN) or Speeders (Citi). Here’s the catch : the new Sprinters on the NL20 index will be traded on Euronext. That must hurt. The attack on their profit center “index information” will be launched on their own systems.

No, this NL20 Sprinter won’t have a material impact on Euronext’s profitability. Not yet, at least. The index licenses will be doing fine this year. However, the timing is aggressive, with Euronext’s IPO coming next week.

No lower prices for retail investors

I always fancy the underdog, and support price competition. However, I haven’t noticed retail investors paying less fee than before at Binck/Alex. Option traders still save more money at a broker not connected to TOM.

Jack