Today is the big day. ABN AMRO will go public again. Unsure yet about the IPO price, the opening level and other details. Will be available everywhere and will even hit the evening news. In the Netherlands this public offering is a big thing. My taxi driver and the cleaning woman are confident. Signing up for a quick buck. Although both of them are worried about lack of buffers and upcoming Basel III. We’re in the happy days again.
World’s Most heavily traded stock option
Once upon a time, ABN was the most heavily traded stock option of world. This was during the open outcry era, around 1997. A veteran recalls the ABN pit had at times so much volume, they were busy with repeated opening rotations all day long. If you understand Dutch, check this interview with Optiver director Jan Dobber in 1998. Making a case for open outcry trading.
Options return on November 24th
Options on ABN AMRO will return on November 24th. Both TOM and Euronext will introduce options on the stock. The option code will be “ABN”. Euronext will use the spotlight classification for ABN. This means just the first three maturity months, as a fast track option listing. Here’s the notice for market makers.
TOM, on the other hand, announced to introduce options on ABN with maturity until December 2016. Good luck with that. Price discovery will take some time for longer dated options. Estimating the dividend amount and dates may be challenging.
Other news
- Telegraaf Media Group options will be delisted after today. Reason is nobody was interested in options (or shares) in TMG.
- Automated Trader Autumn issue has been released (paywall). It’s a Netherlands special. Dijkstra and Rietberg from Flow Traders gave an interview. Also featured Remco Lenterman, Johannah Ladd, Maurice van Tilburg (Euronext) and Willem Sprenkeler (Optiver). And almost forgot, I’m included with a small interview as well. Full pdf will probably be easy to obtain.