The FINANCIAL — NYSE Amex Options, part of the Intercontinental Exchange global network of exchanges and clearing houses, on May 7 announced that IMC Financial Markets (IMC) has become the newest e-Specialist on the exchange.
IMC has been allocated 20 issues and will be subject to the heightened market making conditions and quoting requirements taken on by all Specialists and e-Specialists to improve liquidity and market quality on NYSE Amex Options, according to Intercontinental Exchange.
e-Specialists are off-floor market makers that function alongside traditional specialists and market makers on the NYSE Amex Options trading floor to create an efficient trading environment with diverse participation across more than 643,880 options series.
“We are extremely pleased to expand the e-Specialist program with a company the quality of IMC, whose proven market making capabilities stretch across the global marketplace and multiple asset classes, including the floor of the New York Stock Exchange,” said NYSE Group head of U.S. options, ETPs and bonds Steve Crutchfield. “We are proud to be the home of IMC’s first options specialist operation and look forward to a long partnership of providing exceptional market quality for investors.”
“Since we became a designated market maker on its historic trading floor last year, we sought additional ways to partner with the NYSE and leverage our expertise as market makers,” said managing director and head of trading at IMC Chicago, Scott Knudsen. “The e-Specialist program on NYSE Amex Options is our first move into specialist market making on any options exchange which further diversifies our operations and affords us a key position on a major options platform. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to continue to expand our expertise in market making as an e-Specialist on NYSE Amex Options.”
As NYSE Amex Options’ eleventh e-Specialist, IMC joins an existing community that includes Barclays, Citadel, Citigroup, Goldman, Group One, Integral, Morgan Stanley, Susquehanna International Group, Timber Hill and Wolverine.
NYSE Amex Options provides customers with a distinct, customer-driven hybrid marketplace offering exceptional technology combined with a proven open-outcry trading environment that has accounted for more than 30% of the exchange’s volume so far in 2015. As one of two U.S. options exchanges operated by NYSE Group, NYSE Amex Options provides customers with a valuable platform to trade options with reliability, transparency and efficiency. NYSE Group’s U.S. options exchanges, NYSE Amex and NYSE Arca, provide a compelling dual market structure with two exchanges operating on a single integrated technology platform each with unique benefits for the customer.
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