The International Securities Exchange (ISE) announced that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to restructure its Competitive Market Maker (CMM) trading rights and will launch the new program on September 1, 2011. The new structure grants greater flexibility to current and new CMMs to select the options classes they would like to quote.
Gary Katz, President and CEO of ISE, stated, "Our new CMM trading rights structure grants our market makers greater flexibility and control over which symbols they choose to quote, making it more attractive to provide liquidity at ISE. In this highly competitive environment, we believe this new structure will better enable ISE's market makers to react to changes in the marketplace and to support their business objectives."
The new CMM trading rights structure entitles a market maker to enter quotes in options symbols that comprise a certain percentage of industry volume. A CMM's first trading right entitles that market maker to quote in 20 percent of the industry volume, and each subsequent right provides the ability to quote an additional 10 percent of volume.
The new structure does not impact the rights and obligations of ISE's Primary Market Makers (PMMs). A PMM will continue to be assigned to each symbol traded on the exchange to provide continuous, two-sided quotes and carry out other responsibilities to maintain an orderly market.