The ETF options in the USA are soaring. While this sounds like a soundbite from ten years ago, it still holds. The volumes in ETF options have doubled in the last five years.

The option volume in the SPY (S&P 500 ETF) is massive. It accounts for nearly half of the total US options volume. Or have a look at these pie charts from Bloomberg Markets.

Source : Bloomberg Markets

Source : Bloomberg Markets

Euronext says “me too!”

With this knowledge, it makes sense for Euronext to push for more volume in the ETF options in Amsterdam. There’s just a small difference with the USA. It’s another country. Nobody trades European ETF options.

There are half a dozen options listed on iShares ETF’s in Amsterdam. But it has been a failure so far. The options are quoted by Susquehanna, but are deserted ghost towns. Trading volume is absent, open interest is less than 200 in each of them. The open interest in iShares Japan options is as low as 12.

Weekly ETF options

It’s a success in the USA, let’s just introduce more maturities. Enter the weekly options on the European ETF’s. Per Friday April 22th, the weekly options on European ETF’s will be introduced. That will be another cash cow for SIG. Details from the Euronext notice on Weekly ETF options here.

Optiver having stellar results

The last quoted net profit estimate for Optiver was too low. Refreshed quote is 305 bid at 320 million. I predict 25% higher profits versus 2014. Once again Optiver seems to be growing faster than IMC.
The profits aren’t officially released yet. But there is a serious market in shares Optiver, open for Optiver partners only. The current bid is €2200 for size, which is 10% higher than a few weeks ago. Some 1,44 million outstanding shares, price/earnings multiple of 10 : you do the math. There’s a dividend announced of €130 per share.

Last summer Rob Keldoulis sold a lot of Optiver shares at €1600. Immediately afterwards it was €1700 bid. The Australian is a former Optiver partner and current CEO and founder of Vivienne Court Trading in Sydney.

DeGiro has twitter

Noticed another small flaw in DeGiro’s inhouse matching system. However, the order execution microstructure can be a complex story. Also, I don’t want to publish another negative story on DeGiro. Leave it for somebody else to find and publish.

In other words ; something positive. Since a few weeks DeGiro is active on twitter. Finally. With an account tweeting in Dutch, English and Swedish. Wonderful combination.

Jack