LEAD STORIES
Draft Legislation Would Have CFTC Regulate Some Index Options
Bloomberg/Business Week
"The Chicago Board Options Exchange and other venues may not be able to trade products such as Standard & Poor’s 500 Index or Russell 1000 Index options if a draft piece of federal legislation becomes law, a financial- industry representative said. U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln’s draft legislation on off-exchange derivatives would treat contracts based on broad market gauges as swaps, which are a type of derivative. Swaps that are cleared could be traded only on a futures exchange, according to Susan Milligan, head of government relations for the Options Clearing Corp."
http://jlne.ws/9SN2zADraft Legislation Would Have CFTC Regulate Some Index Options
Bloomberg/Business Week
"The Chicago Board Options Exchange and other venues may not be able to trade products such as Standard & Poor’s 500 Index or Russell 1000 Index options if a draft piece of federal legislation becomes law, a financial- industry representative said. U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln’s draft legislation on off-exchange derivatives would treat contracts based on broad market gauges as swaps, which are a type of derivative. Swaps that are cleared could be traded only on a futures exchange, according to Susan Milligan, head of government relations for the Options Clearing Corp."
UPDATE: Nasdaq CEO: SEC's Options Pricing Move 'Aggressive'
Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to propose a new rule capping exchange fees for accessing quotes on options exchanges at 30 cents per contract, similar to a rule for stock exchanges. While this would benefit some options exchanges, the proposal could hurt Nasdaq OMX PHLX because of its pricing scheme charging firms and broker-dealers fees higher than 30 cents. Not surprisingly, Nasdaq OMX Group Chief Executive Bob Greifeld criticized the proposal, calling the move "intrusive."
Link to Dow Jones Newswires story: http://jlne.ws/aILfIA
Citi options become crowd favorite
Reuters
The New York-based Citigroup has seen more activity than any other single equity option this past week as many investors bet its shares would keep rising. It is the most actively traded single stock equity option this year so far and was the busiest in 2009 as well, according to the Options Clearing Corp.
http://jlne.ws/dzLrTs
EXCHANGES
CBOE Notice Re: April 23, 2010 Options Symbology Consolidation
The Chicago Board Options Exchange announces that the 3rd Options Symbology Initiative (OSI) symbol consolidation will begin after the close of trading on Friday, April 23, 2010 in option classes traded on the underlyings beginning with the letters D through I...The OCC is coordinating the consolidation.
http://jlne.ws/9HtsoA
TECHNOLOGY
RealTick Enhances Options Functionality
Advanced Trading
RealTick has expanded its options functionality with advanced execution capabilities and tools for trading in European, Asian and U.S. markets. RealTick 9.3, its latest release, includes enhanced spread trading capabilities for users to interact with the ISE spread (complex order) book for multi-legged options strategies. The platform also now offers an indicative spread montage across exchanges for enhanced use of RealTick managed spreads. Users can also now automatically delta hedge options positions.
http://jlne.ws/dsWBq1
FIF Capacity Statistics For March 2010:
Mondovisione
On the Options side, NASDAQ DAP hit a record peak for the second month in a row of 188,792 mps over 1 second, up 2%...NYSE ArcaBook Options hit a peak of 584,767 mps over 1 second, up 1 %
http://jlne.ws/9Qk2NR
OPTIONS EDUCATION
Trading Iron Condors - Part Two
The Options Insider
(See yesterday's JLNOptions blog for Part One)
http://jlne.ws/czgtAP
