Tag Archives: ISE Mercury

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Add One More Options Exchange To Your Menu-Its About Rebates, Silly!

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MarketsMuse options market update courtesy of extract from our friends at MarketsMedia LLC and their profile of yet another proposed options exchange with yet another “rebate” scheme intended to capture market share in the very competitive world of order routing.

International Securities Exchange will have its ISE Mercury exchange ready for trading by the end of the second quarter, though the launch remains subject to approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

New York-based ISE is the ‘s flagship ISE options exchange has market share of about 10.5%, 3rd-most of 12 U.S. options exchanges, while its Gemini exchange, launched in August 2013, has a 3.1% share, according to the OCC.

Gary Katz, ISE
Gary Katz, ISE

ISE has said Gemini is differentiated by offering transaction rebates to liquidity providers and prioritizing orders based on price, rather than prioritizing orders based on price and time. Mercury is expected to have its own differentiated market structure, though details have yet to be specified.

“We look at our exchanges as a group because they’re intended to work together,” said ISE Chief Executive Officer Gary Katz. “They address certain segments of the market, and offer pricing to attract different types of customers, whether they be professionals or priority customers. This strategy is working well in a super-competitive environment.

For the full story from MarketsMedia, please click here.

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ISE To Launch Another Options Exchange Platform

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Below courtesy of extract from Bloomberg LP 29 Sept reporting.

International Securities Exchange Holdings Inc. applied to create its third U.S. options exchange, to be called ISE Mercury.

ISE, a unit of Deutsche Boerse AG that already operates two options venues in the U.S., said the new venue’s structure, fees and products will be made public at a later date. Should ISE Mercury open, it would be the nation’s 13th options market.

“ISE Mercury will use our proven technology platform to service a segment of the options market not currently active on ISE or ISE Gemini,” Boris Ilyevsky, managing director of ISE’s options exchanges, said in a statement. “Our goal is to reach broadly across market segments and to deliver innovative trading functionality, superior customer service and competitive fees to different constituencies in the industry through our three exchanges.”

The firm last year started a second exchange, ISE Gemini, that had a market share of 3.8 percent at the end of last week, according to data from Options Clearing Corp. ISE’s namesake platform’s market share was 11.1 percent, placing it fourth among the 12 options venues.