Optiver, the global market maker, is taking a further step in its US expansion plans with the opening of a new Chicago office.

The new premises, located at One Prudential Plaza, contain 100,000 square feet of office space, an increase of over one-third from the firm’s previous footprint in the city. With room for close to 600 staff, up from approximately 400, the larger space positions Optiver to seize growing opportunities in US financial markets.

Optiver’s Chicago office serves as the firm’s US headquarters, from where it is active on several of the leading US exchanges, trading a wide range of products, from listed derivatives to cash equities, ETFs, bonds and foreign exchange. Earlier this year, the firm launched Optiver Execution Services from New York City, a riskless agency broker that provides execution services to institutional counterparties. In 2021, Optiver opened its second US office in Austin, Texas, serving as a strategic location for advanced quantitative research and hardware engineering.

Together with these initiatives, the new Chicago office will serve a number of objectives for Optiver, including accommodating projected US headcount growth and acting as a key location from which to attract top talent.

“We want to ensure we’re in a position to fully embrace the wealth of opportunities available in the US,” said Rutger Brinkhuis, CEO of Optiver US. “Along with our Austin office and the launch of Optiver Execution Services, expanding our Chicago footprint is a signal of our growth ambitions and our commitment to supporting current and future employees. It’s also a further demonstration of Optiver’s continued engagement with the city of Chicago.”

The space is one of a number of ‘new look’ offices designed to prioritize in-office collaboration and wellbeing. Construction began in the fourth quarter of 2022, with the buildout overseen by design firm Gary Lee Partners of Chicago.

Alongside the physical layout, the office’s technology and built-in wellness features have been designed with collaboration and healthy habits in mind. Shower rooms, fresh food and snacks, including an in-house coffee bar, help to revitalize employees throughout the day, while an abundance of collaboration areas and state-of-the-art tech installations embody the firm’s innovative, teamwork-oriented culture.  

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ABOUT OPTIVER
Optiver is a global market maker with offices in Amsterdam, London, Chicago, Austin, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei. Founded in 1986, today we are a leading liquidity provider, with close to 2,000 employees in offices around the world, united in our commitment to improve the market through competitive pricing, execution and risk management. By providing liquidity on multiple exchanges across the world in various financial instruments we participate in the safeguarding of healthy and efficient markets. We provide liquidity to financial markets using our own capital, at our own risk, trading a wide range of products: listed derivatives, cash equities, ETFs, bonds and foreign currencies.