Orc kickstarts VIX options offering following CBOE certification

Orc Tbricks, the trading platform of Stockholm-based trading technology provider Orc, has started quoting and trading CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) options following the certification of its high-speed interface to the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), including the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE).

Under the certification agreement Orc Tbricks will be able to offer a broad range of products, including equity options and index options to trading desks with a customisable trading system via its app-based modular platform.

The CBOE certification is a key development for the firm as it increases its capabilities in the futures and options segments of the equities side, said Jonas Hansbo (pictured), chief strategy officer, Orc Group.

“We will continue to expand this area and add more markets,” he said. “We have been certified in some cash markets and this is part of our expansion in the US both for trading and electronic execution.”

Orc, a global derivatives trading technology provider, recently acquired Tbricks to complement its trading platform capabilities for market making and prop trading.

“Orc has long offered CBOE connectivity to professional traders through other products, which means that Orc Tbricks CBOE certification is a significant step forward in the process of aligning Orc’s product portfolio,” said Hansbo. “A key advantage with Orc Tbricks is that traders now can respond to auctions at several levels simultaneously, using our multi-level quoting app.”

CBOE's executive vice-president and chief information officer, Gerald O’Connell, said that the new interface offers its trading permit holders (TPHs) and their customers a high-performance derivatives trading technology solution including customisable pricing, volatility management, risk management, team quoting and a series of trading features such as hidden quotes (electronic eye or take out machines), peg quotes, multi-level quoting, quote spreading, portfolio graphs, portfolio stress testing and request for quotations (RFQs).

Orc, said Hansbo, is also developing its automated execution trading platform, Orc Fix Access, which is directed to banks and institutional brokers and is aimed at providing access and connectivity to the markets they support.

“Orc Fix Access allows any Fix-enabled trading system to use Orc’s native exchange gateways to access more than 150 global execution venues covering all major asset classes,” he said. “Our electronic execution offering represents 30% of the firm’s revenue. We see this part of the business as a key element for those firms providing liquidity to investors in structured products.”

The news follows a multi-year agreement between Erste Group Bank and Orc earlier this year, through which the Austrian bank’s equity capital markets will use Orc’s execution platform for the trading and market-making of Erste’s structured products.

Erste Group's agreement with Orc was aimed at reducing the group’s total cost of ownership as well as execution risk by replacing existing infrastructure which includes multiple legacy applications such as the group’s institutional order routing system.