Last round of play offs for the primary market maker licenses ended last week. In nearly a dozen option classes the traders have been trying to quote as tight as possible for two months. The best liquidity provider wins. It wasn’t IMC so send the tightest quotes. IMC lost play offs. All of ‘m.
The battlefield. The winning team in bold.
Option Class |
Market Makers competing |
| Aegon (AGN) | IMC, Tibra, Nino |
| DSM | IMC, Scrocca |
| ING | IMC, Nino |
| KPN | Caerus, IMC |
| Mittal (MT) | Caerus, IMC |
| Philips (PHI) | Caerus, IMC, 323 |
| Post NL (PNL) | All Options, IMC |
| Royal Dutch (RD) | Caerus, Tibra |
| Randstad (RND) | IMC, Scrocca |
| TNT Express (TNE) | All Options, IMC |
| Tom Tom (TTM) | All Options, 323 |
| Unilever (UN) | Caerus, IMC |
Caerus takes over three licenses from IMC. Six other licenses flow from IMC to 323, Nino and Scrocca (two licenses each). Not sure yet who has won the minor roles in TNT and Post NL.
Not a photo finish
IMC lost all play offs. That’s not the end of the world. Trading the options on Euronext can still be done without too much loss of quoting power with the Competitive Market Maker role. In addition, trading options on rival exchange TOM could be much more interesting than old and expensive Euronext.
There is something strange about IMC. Obviously the traders from Defares and Pot didn’t take the play off seriously. The other market makers have beaten IMC by wide margin. IMC didn’t even try to win.
This puzzles me. Perhaps IMC doesn’t believe in the added value of PMM licenses. Possible. But in this case, they shouldn’t have signed for the licences. Besides, they are still primary market maker in stocks options such as Ahold, Royal Dutch and ASML. They lost at least nine roles this time, and they will never get them back.