FOWThe annual Futures and Options World (FOW for friends) event in Amsterdam is coming up shortly. Thursday the 17th of March the conference will be held in the Hilton hotel at the Apollolaan in Amsterdam.

Was especially looking forward to the first panel discussion of the day. Paul Beck (Eurex), Adam Rose (Euronext), Willem Meijer (TOM) and Jasper Anderluh (DeGiro) could be very interesting. After all, Euronext and DeGiro are teaming up against TOM – while Eurex may be the most powerful outsider on the Dutch options market. Never a dull moment.

DeGiro censored, pull presence

Alas, while they’re still on the program flyer at the moment, DeGiro decided to pull their presence. DeGiro was told not to repeat their earlier allegations towards TOM Smart Order Router (SOR).

If you’re not free to talk, you shouldn’t be joining a discussion. A conspiracy theory could link the sponsors of the event to the content of the panel discussion : but no, this does not seem to be the case here.

Reason is FOW Events is scared of possible legal consequences (lawsuits, libel etc) and have a policy of stepping back when there’s a lawsuit looming. This lawsuit will never happen, but you can’t blame FOW for this. Binck lost another expensive lawsuit last Friday against semi-legal asset manager (“for friends only”) Fibonacci. Link (nl).

Derivative trading volume shift to TOM

Still, will be interesting to see the discussion between Adam Rose and Willem Meijer. Adam Rose (Euronext) had to report a boost in stock trading volume in February (+24% YoY), with a shrinking volume on the derivative side. Index options down with -15% and stock options -8%. The options volume has seen growth as well, it’s just not traded anymore on Euronext. It moved to TOM.

Other notable names present at the event will be Remco Lenterman and Albert Menkveld. Will be a promising day – and it’s for the second year in a row followed by the Dutch Financial Services Gala Dinner. For more information contact Ferry Boekholt. For tickets for the whole event find more information over here. But as usual, if you’re in the business you’ll already be invited.

Jack