Before the outbreak of the crisis, the world of derivatives was as exciting as a the running episodes of Sesame Street. Some minor changes, but basically every day the same. Press releases could be copy-pasted from the previous month. Volume of traded options went up, and bid-ask spreads went down. This has all been ruinedRead more
Twice a year Euronext is auctioning licenses for market makers in options. The market makers don’t have to pay for the right to send their quotes, they just have to fulfil their duty. The right to send quotes to the market is granted to the market makers who commit themselves to the tightest bid-ask spreads.Read more
Allard Jakobs gave an interview to the Dutch financial newspaper Financieele Dagblad. After some overly ambitious mission statements (world power), he commented on his recent acquisition of rival Saen Options. Most executives would remain cautious, politically correct and avoiding stepping on toes. Not in this case, and it turned out to be a highly entertainingRead more
In June 2008 the Dutch option powerhouse Optiver announced to team up with the biggest Dutch retail broker Binck to create their own marketplace. Retail clients of the broker would do all their option trading against Optiver, under the assumption of equal option quotes. Within the ruling of the MiFiD, the European markets directive, thisRead more
Trading is thin, and analysts from Goldman seem to have enough time left to do some silly research. Today analyst Peter Berezin announced holding overnight positions returned nice profits over the last 15 years. Buying at the close and selling in the opening yielded a 309% profit. The other way around, buying at the openingRead more
