Nobody seems to escape from the crisis. Pensionfunds are in troubled water, real estate prices drop and the government is the proud owner of banks and industries. Bank employees are struggling to keep their jobs. And the option-traders? Anyone trading for a bank is risking their job, but the pure play market makers should beRead more
Euronext is finally ready to introduce the one-cent tick size in the Amsterdam stock options market. This Premium Based Tick Size plan has been postponed for a while, the crisis curbed their enthusiasm in November 2008. Seven months later the united market maker lobby has achieved some success as well. The threshold has been setRead more
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
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
