MarketsMuse Strike Price update profiles a “return from the past and into the future” look at what many veteran (and former) option mart floor traders had all but given up for lost thanks to the electronification and bifurcation of institutional options trading.

We’re talking about those legacy, open-outcry trading pits, one -time bastions for burly and sharp-elbowed boys from Brooklyn and college ball-players-turned-options market makers and brokers who had reserved trading pit spots for them congregate and serve as liquidity centers for investors and upstairs traders to route and execute both small retail orders and large/complex institutional options orders. According to an article in today’s edition of the MarketsMedia.com newsletter, the options market is having a “Its Déjà vu all over again” moment.

Those who have been around for more than 15 minutes lament the fact that in recent years, those brick and mortar venues have become mere shells of their former selves and in some cases, ghost towns. The American Stock Exchange, arguably the pioneer in options pit trading, was acquired by the NYSE a few years back and is now literally a vacant lot that real estate developers hope to convert into a luxury rental and retail space. Beantown’s BOX might as well be a bowling alley, as trading via that venue is all electronic. One can hear a pin drop on the floor of the CBOE thanks to the ISE, the options market “Dominator” and a completely virtual exchange that has no physical structure other than corporate office space for their execs, and is otherwise comprised of air-conditioned warehouses patrolled by security dogs to protect rows of rack space for computer servers.

Noted John Houlhan, the COO of OMEX Systems, a long time, broker-favored OEMS platform (recently acquired by fintech firm Raptor Trading) and first designed exclusively for agency-only options and ETF floor brokerages operating on the AMEX and since embraced by a number of “upstairs” executing brokers, prop shops and select hedge funds, “Other than a handful of firms that were rolled up, most legacy floor brokerage firms and market-making firms turned in their trading smocks and floor badges long ago.” Added Houlahan, “The others who are relevant in the course of facilitating large block and/or complex options orders for institutional clients or hedge funds now generally operate from loft spaces in tony areas in Chicagoland, offices in various parts of Manhattan and New Jersey offices adjacent to exchange co-location areas.”

BUT WAIT! Everything you just read in that last paragraph is not entirely true; open outcry options trading floors are as relevant as ever, according to coverage from financial media firm MarketsMedia.com.. Here’s an extract from today’s edition of their newsletter, including a look at select veteran options market brokers who have lived to tell the tale… Continue reading →