The more hype for an event, the bigger the possibility of a deception. A non-event instead of an exciting trading day. The looming Brexit vote on June 23th is already the grandmother of all high volatility events. Bet this time it will be no different. The July options trade at a big premium.
Exchanges chiming in on Brexit
Another sign of Brexit craze are the exchanges. The Chicago Board of Trade introduced options in the US on the British FTSE index end of 2015. Great for folks who want to trade options in the US on the index in the UK, and pay with US Dollars.
The LSE themselves will join the party. Weekly options on the FTSE will kick off trading May 31th. Just in time. There’s one market maker committed in quoting the weekly’s. As usual, it’s SIG Susquehanna quoting options. Doesn’t matter if there’s volume or not, their systems quote everything (except for the real long tails, though). Source on the FTSE weekly options: Fow (paywall).
Euronext doesn’t dare to quote FTSE options. No license. To participate in the Brexit, weekly options on FTSE ETF’s will be launched. Nobody ever trades ETF options at Euronext. At least they give it a try. No need to repeat who’s the market maker providing liquidity here. Here’s the factsheet. The option code for the FTSE ETF will be ISF. The options will be traded in euro’s.
Tom Voute to retire, ATG for sale
Algorithmic Trading Group, ATG for friends, is for sale. The Hong Kong-Dutch automated stock trader trades on their five European exchange memberships and through three brokers. They use a C# platform.
Co-founder and majority owner Tom Voute (57) will be retiring in his Dutch castle. The IMC veteran will be spending more time with the family, his garden and his website.
ATG IS NOT VIRTU
ATG employs seven people and has been profitable from the start. Their algo trading is done from the Hong Kong and Leiden offices. There’s also a dormant office in the Americas, on bounty island Curacao. Net equity is a modest €2.5 million, so we’re not talking about Virtu-like valuations.
Jokes aside, this isn’t an advertorial about a guy seeking to cash out on his shares. Tom Voute (+) wants to sell a part of his shares so another trader can take over the helm. Better yet, bring a delta1 strategy which can trade over the ATG infrastructure.