Insights
Read our thought leadership pieces, industry news, market structure insights and more.
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Enhancing swaps liquidity through targeted reforms
Two types of liquidity: The Mississippi River and market makers in agricultural derivatives
PFOF is going away, but the problem isn’t
Latest Insight
Diversity is strength in US derivatives markets
How Japan’s settlement price methodology impacts option expiry
Market structure
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Market structure Lend, borrow, grow: Improving Brazil’s SBL market
We propose steps to modernize Brazil’s SBL system.
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Market structure
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Market structure
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Market structure
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Regulation
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Market regulation Why trade execution still matters
Now more than ever, traders need to carefully choose the right execution partners and strategy.
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Market regulation A better way to ‘pilot’ financial regulation
Pilot programs allow regulators to test – in a real-world, yet controlled environment – whether a particular market structure reform is likely to have its intended effect.
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Market regulation A little understood cost of trading options in the US
Exchanges use ORF to cover a material portion, but not all, of their supervision and regulation of the US options market.
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Market regulation One key lesson from the latest CCP fire drill
Fire drills are a vital way of preparing the industry to effectively respond to a major default.
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Market regulation Blazing a new Consolidated Audit Trail
Restructuring the CAT in a way that is sustainable, cost efficient and practical.
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Market regulation Latest CFD bans threaten listed products
Recent CFD regulations in Germany and Spain are conflating contracts-for-difference with instruments like futures and options.
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Market regulation A new playbook for Europe’s capital markets
We propose a new playbook for turning Europe’s capital markets into a healthier place.
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Market regulation, Regulatory comments and consultations SEC comment letter: order competition rule
Optiver comments on the SEC’s proposed order competition rule.
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Market regulation, Regulatory comments and consultations SEC comment letter: amendments to regulation NMS
Optiver comments on the SEC’s proposed amendments to Regulation NMS.
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Market regulation CSDR: promising signs from the new settlement discipline regime
Cash penalties introduced under the Settlement Discipline Regime (SDR) are working, early data and anecdotal evidence show. With market participants already incentivized to get their post-trade in order, mandatory buy-ins could introduce fresh risks into the process.
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Market views
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Market views Volatility views: Banking stress raises potential for volatile Fed decision
Recent market turmoil has options traders anticipating significant swings around the March 22 FOMC statement.
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Market views
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Market views
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Market views
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Explainers
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Explainers When size matters in options markets
If you wish to understand the real size of options markets, don’t stop at contract counts.
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Explainers How securities borrowing and lending works
Securities lending is the practice of lending out stocks, bonds and ETFs.
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Explainers Central clearing: an essential post-trade function
Explore the basics of central clearing and learn why it’s an important piece of the financial markets.
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Explainers Orders and the order book
Orders are the building blocks of some of trading’s most important concepts.
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Explainers How today’s stock markets work
Beginning with an order, all the way through to clearing and settlement, here’s what you need to know about how billions of shares change hands every day.
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Explainers A guide to how the European Union makes financial laws
It can take years for proposed rules to become law in the European Union. Here’s our step-by-step guide to how it happens.
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Explainers 5 things you should know about: market-wide circuit breakers
Market-wide circuit breakers are triggered by rapid and extreme price declines in the S&P 500 Index, a widely-followed benchmark for US equities.
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Explainers An illustrated guide to price controls on US exchanges
Well-designed price controls are key in our view to preserving orderly and efficient markets. Given their complexity, we present this overview of the various mechanisms in place across U.S. exchanges.
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SeriesExplainers Call options
What do long/short positions in call options mean? An investor that buys call options benefits when the price of the underlying asset is higher than the strike price of the option at expiry. The writer of the call option has the opposite pay-off potential and receives a fixed option premium when they sell the contract.
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Series
Explainers Put options
An investor that buys put options benefits from this position when the price of the underlying asset is lower than the strike price of the option at expiry. Conversely, if at expiry the price of the underlying asset is higher than the strike price, the option expires with no intrinsic value and the investor’s loss is equal to the option premium paid.
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