Tag Archives: john houlahan

Open Outcry Options Pit Trading is Dead..Long Live Open Outcry Options Pit Trading

May 7, 2015 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

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 →

Tech Talk

Broker-Neutral Trading Technology Firm Offers New Suite of Sweet DMA Tools

August 6, 2014 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

Below extract courtesy of Wall Street Letter, as reported by WSL staff columnist Sean Creamer

OMEX Systems, a provider of web-based, broker-neutral and FIX-compliant front, middle, and back office platforms for broker-dealers and buyside firms, will craft a direct market access offering to aid broker-dealers in choosing algo providers, according to John Houlahan, chief operations officer.

New York City-based OMEX , which introduced its OEMS (Order and Execution Management System) in 2009, is creating newly-enhanced functions for traders interested in setting up direct market access to allow brokerages to place and modify orders on a faster basis, noted Houlahan.

“We are also building out functionality to facilitate direct market access clients via internal algorithmic parameter metrics,” said Houlahan. “We are building a DMA tool to allow broker-dealers to pick and choose various algo providers to place, modify, and monitor trades for intraday modification for cash desk, options, fixed income and futures.”

OMEX is also preparing to make its trading and execution functions available across the pond, so that global broker-dealers can have access to the offering, Houlahan said. The expansion comes on the heels of the firm being certified for use in the Mexican exchange network, he added. Continue reading →

ETF News, People Profiles, Strike Price, Tech Talk

Euro-based Bond Platform Offers RFQ Trading for ETFs; US-based OMEX Trades Ahead

December 4, 2013 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

Courtesy of ETF Strategy

“..MTS, one of Europe’s largest electronic fixed income trading venues, is to launch request-for-quote (RFQ) trading for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) via its multi-dealer-to-client MTS BondVision platform.

The new service will offer liquidity providers access to a diverse community of global institutional investors.

The platform will support ETF products listed on the Borsa Italiana and London Stock Exchange, both of which are owned by the London Stock Exchange Group PLC.

By offering RFQ as a new execution method in addition to the order book trading functionality currently offered by the two exchanges, MTS is seeking to improve the efficiency of executing these products and increase trading opportunities for all market participants..”

Observed John Houlahan, COO of US-based OMEX Systems, the broker-neutral OEMS platform used by leading ETF, option and futures market participants, and provides direct market access to multiple exchanges and liquidity centers, “Hats off to MTS. Even if RFQ is a functionality that fixed-income players as well as institutional equity trading desks are long-accustomed to, and that some of us are already well into next-generation request functionality, from a trading technology industry “business model” angle, the underlying story is clear: niche players offering single-asset class products are kidding themselves if they think that is a sustainable model.”

Added Houlahan, a 20-year veteran of the trading technology space, “MTS certainly seems to recognize that electronic trading for all but the most liquid fixed income products is still at the early stages of evolution and large-scale user adoption. It makes sense to leverage their technology, just as equities systems vendors are now attempting to step into the bond and futures arenas. Those who can overcome not just the technological and regulatory issues, but the political and cultural nuances that distinguish the ways various assets actually trade in secondary markets will be remembered as real pioneers.”

For the full article from ETF Strategy, please click here

Strike Price, Tech Talk

Buyside Manager Adopts OMEX Systems’ Execution Platform; $850mil AUM Portfolio Strategy Firm Opts For Hands-Free, Multi-Custodian Order Routing

August 7, 2013 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

New York, NY, Aug 7– OMEX Systems LLC, the provider of broker-neutral DMA and OEMS technology for firms active in the equities, options and futures markets, announced that a customized version of the vendor’s OEMS platform has been implemented by Durango, CO-based Swan Wealth Advisors, the $850mil AUM risk management firm specializing in proprietary, market neutral hedging and income strategies for use by the professional investment advisor community. The OMEX trade execution platform will serve as Swan’s primary hub for implementing and administering the firm’s options-centric strategies across multiple custodians and thousands of sub accounts.

In framing the solution that OMEX provided to its most recent buy-side onboard, Robert Swan, Director of Trading and Technology for 16-year old Swan Wealth Advisors stated, “Like other managers with similar profiles, we’ve had to bear a myriad of logistical burdens when implementing strategies in tandem across a universe of accounts domiciled at multiple custodians, with each custodian imposing different order delivery instructions for its captive clients. OMEX proved uniquely intuitive in understanding our business and delivered a solution that has streamlined our workflow in a manner that had yet been available at any price from any other vendor in the industry.” Continue reading →

Tech Talk

Trading Technology Vendor Touches ETF Space; Game-Change Create/Redeem Widget for APs and Execution Desks

April 3, 2013 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

MarketsMuse team picked up on recent news release from broker-neutral OMEX Trading Systems that included a brief mention of a new feature [built by special request] that analyzes whether its cheaper to effect a “create” vs. executing in the ETF cash market, and implements the create through a basket-trade application.

Other new system enhancements from this boutique trading system and DMA provider include an assortment of new FIX connections to various clearing and custodian destinations, an updated menu of algorithms, a widget for multi-custodian trade allocation, DMA to futures markets, more listed options trading tools (including unlimited-leg option spread orders), updates to charting and Level II displays, and a range of updates to the OMEX back-office, accounting, compliance and risk management modules.

According to OMEX Chief Operating Officer John Houlahan, “Its becoming harder for us to stay “below-the-radar”, only because we are increasingly displacing various trading system vendors who merely offer components, as opposed to an all-in-one solution that delivers uniquely robust front-end DMA, OMS and EMS functions, as well comprehensive risk management tools, compliance, reporting and accounting modules for broker-dealers, as well as for select hedge funds and RIAs.” Keep reading for the link to the release.. Continue reading →