In this role, Mr. Jacobson will spearhead ISE’s liaison efforts in the promotion of its unique market structure and benefits to the trading units of broker-dealers, hedge funds and other institutional and retail order flow providers.
Prior to joining ISE, Mr. Jacobson was vice president of business development for the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). Since 1985, he has been instrumental in developing and nurturing CBOE’s liaison to the brokerage community. Before his affiliation with CBOE, Mr. Jacobson was a top producing broker and options trainer at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. He is also a founding member of the Options Institute and was significantly involved in the initial development of the Options Industry Council.
Gary Katz, ISE’s svp of marketing & business development, said, “We are excited to have Alex join us at this critical time in our development and believe that he will enhance our ability to promote the ISE to the financial community.”
The marketing & business development division of ISE includes marketing, broker-dealer training and research & development departments.
Mr. Jacobson is frequently quoted in the financial press, including Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal and has appeared on CNBC and CNN. During the past several years, he has taught in the training schools of most major brokerage firms and several foreign derivatives exchanges. Mr. Jacobson has contributed several articles to the financial media and has authored many chapters for texts on options trading.
“I am thrilled to be part of ISE’s team. Not since the inception of listed options trading has the financial services industry seen such a revolutionary concept, and I look forward to being part of this progression,” said Mr. Jacobson.
On May 26, the ISE listed three issues as a first step in its rollout to trade the top 600 equity options on the world’s only exchange to combine electronic trading with auction market principles. Currently, ISE trades 128 issues and is continuing to increase the roster in its rollout toward the full contingent of 600 listings. The updated list of issues traded is available on ISE’s web site (www.iseoptions.com) within the section entitled “Product Information.”
As of today, seven of ten Primary Market Makers (PMM) and twenty-nine of 100 Competitive Market Makers (CMM) have been activated; the remaining market makers will become operational during ISE’s continuing rollout phase. Additionally, 76 broker/dealers have been approved as Electronic Access Members (EAM), with more than a dozen in the process of attaining EAM status.
ISE is the first nationally registered securities exchange in twenty-seven years, the first fully electronic options exchange in the United States, and the world’s first options marketplace combining electronic trading and auction market principles. Trading in this innovative market began on May 26, 2000.
I SE has announced its intention to list the top 600 equity options classes representing over 90% of the option industry’s average daily trading volume. ISE’s rollout schedule involves starting trading with a small number of options classes and growing over time to the full list of 600.
ISE headquarters is located at 60 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004 and can be reached at (212) 943-2400 or, for additional information, visit its web site at www.iseoptions.com.
