BATS Exchange received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to operate a US equity options platform and expects to go live on Friday, February 26th, pending industry-wide options symbology consolidation and testing.
“With SEC approval granted for BATS Options, we are pleased to deliver on the schedule announced last summer with go live likely in a matter of weeks,” BATS Chief Executive Joe Ratterman said. “Similar to what we accomplished in the equity markets, we will strive to bring more transparency and efficiency to the options market by offering a competitive alternative with straightforward pricing and a platform built on BATS’ second-to-none technology.
“We thank our members, investors and supporters in the industry as we continue Making Markets Better, and the SEC staff for their feedback and diligence in processing the options rule set,” he said.
“From the beginning, we built the BATS Options system with the Options Symbology Initiative in mind and anticipate coming online as soon after the cutover as possible. We thank the OCC and OPRA for working with us to meet our aggressive timeline,” said Jeromee Johnson, BATS vice president, market development.
BATS Options will launch with options on 18 underlying securities, including cash equities and ETFs. Additional rollout details, including a list of specific symbols, technical specifications and membership agreements are available online at www.batsoptions.com.
The BATS Options platform certification system is currently available to BATS Exchange members for connectivity and testing. For more information, members can contact the BATS Trade Desk (913.815.7001, tradedesk@batstrading.com).
In just four years, BATS Exchange has captured 10% market share in U.S. equities. The exchange has filed rules with the SEC for a second U.S. equities exchange (BYX) (announced on September 17, 2009), also slated for launch in early 2010. BATS Europe, which launched less than 15 months ago, recently surpassed pan-European trading volume of €2 billion for the first time and currently executes 8-10% of the FTSE 100.
