Wall Street Letter VOL. XLV, NO. 29 - Sept. 16, 2013 | Page 5

19 – 25 SEPTEMBER 2013

advisors, according to Tom McCabe, chief operating officer. In an interview with WSL, McCabe said the exchange has seen an influx of new CTA customers looking to get delta exposure to underlying equities. “They can’t do it directly because, from a regulatory perspective, they can’t hold it in their accounts,” McCabe said. “What they recognize is that by using our product they can get into stock delta at reasonable rates. It’s a good transaction for them because they can carry synthetic equity exposure through our futures product, and that is where our volume growth is.” The exchange has seen its overall volumes increase by 45% year-overyear as of the end of August, and an even bigger increase (62%) was seen in its single stock future volume, according to data from the exchange. McCabe noted OCX also anticipates a surge in volume once DoddFrank Act rules governing securitiesbased swaps, which will be governed by the SEC, go into effect. The SEC is still in the process of finalizing its rules in that area but McCabe noted OCX is having discussions with market participants in the meantime as it attempts to gauge potential interest in trading the listed contracts it already has available. “The feedback we are getting is that they are prepared on their side, they agree [the single-stock futures are] an economically equivalent product, they agree it makes sense to come on to an exchange like OneChicago that exists today,” he said. “But… they will not make any shifts in their business models until there is regulatory clarity on what that model is going to look like.” TECHNOLOGY

TECHNOLOGY

Exchanges to integrate TS-Associates offering

T

be a third user interface framework S-Associates will integrate its for new customers who require the Correlix capability and Tip integrated suite.” OFF offering into a single product, An initial barrier to the integration according to Henry Young, CEO of was the difference in opTS-Associates. erating systems utilized After acquiring Correfor the offerings. While lix’s offering and clients, the systems now operate TS-Associates cherry off the same OS, Young picked the popular pointed out the majormechanics of Correlix, ity of the 15 clients onwith the aim of integratboarded this year used ing it with the company’s Tip OFF. Despite this, Tip OFF function into HENRY YOUNG CEO at TS-Associates he added that exchanges a single suite offerin particular have taken ing, Young said. The interest in Correlix due to its ability to combined platform is expected to be monitor inbound order flow, allowing completed in 2014, he added. them to better address client issues due “Cross-fertilization will bring two to the latency of the product. products together, merging into a “Most of the customers on Correlix single core engine that will ultimately were acquired by TS-Associates,” said have two separate user interfaces to Young. “It has been slow, but now we provide support to Tip OFF and Corare winning brand new business with relix customers,” said Young. “Being the Correlix product.” built from the same framework will

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thinkorswim to release data monitoring software
thinkorswim, a subsidiary of TD Ameritrade, will release a market data

monitoring offering before the year’s end, according to John Hart, director of trader product development at thinkorswim. The company will add fundamental data sets to its platform, using TD’s plethora of market data and financial capital, something that would not have been attainable without the synergy between thinkorswim and TD, Hart pointed out. “A bit of a hole [in the offering] was that if customers wanted to do money flow or balance sheet analysis, we did not have the data to dig into,” said Hart. “Soon clients will be able to do that and more long-term investor type screening and analysis.” Earlier this year, thinkorswim added several services and capabilities for traders, noted Hart.

Strategy Roller, a covered call offering released in January, took staple trading strategies and automated them, giving traders choices directed towards risk and futures outlooks, noted Hart. “The covered call roller will view the market and roll the option until the protocol pre-programmed by the trader tells it not to,” said Hart. “This is a great way for traders to execute covered call while mental efforts go to advanced strategies.” A month ago, thinkorswim also launched a volatility index futures contract, allowing the operation of VIX futures alongside options, a capability that is hard to come by, noted Hart. “The concept has been around for a long time, but to allow trading, we