NYSE Amex Options, one of NYSE Euronext’s (NYX) two leading U.S. options exchanges, today announced that it has become the first exchange to file for and receive approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to eliminate position limits for options on the SPDR® S&P 500® Exchanged-Traded Fund (“SPY”) on a fourteen-month pilot basis. Designed to meet growing demand by options customers to trade the most active class of options, this pilot program is launching immediately. NYSE Amex Options is the only options exchange that does not charge customers a fee to trade SPY options.
“NYSE Amex Options is appreciative of the SEC’s decision to approve this important initiative, making us the first exchange to launch a pilot program that will provide greater transparency, competition, and liquidity in SPY options trading,” said Steve Crutchfield, CEO, NYSE Amex Options. “We already offer customers the ability to trade SPY options free of charge. And now, with no position limits on SPY options, we provide a lower-cost alternative to expensive proprietary index products for institutional investors. In today’s competitive environment, such an alternative can play a vital role in helping certain investors to better meet their investment needs.”
This pilot program offers NYSE Amex Options traders the ability to optimize their S&P 500 hedging strategies using SPY options. NYSE Arca Options is expected to submit a similar filing soon. To further encourage greater participation and increase market quality and liquidity in SPY, NYSE Amex Options also recently lowered its fee for Market Makers to a flat rate of $0.10 when executing electronic complex orders.
NYSE Euronext offers customers two unique platforms to trade U.S. options with reliability, transparency and efficiency: NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex Options. Together, these options exchanges present a compelling dual market structure with the choice of price-time priority on NYSE Arca Options or the traditional market-maker model and expanded array of services of NYSE Amex Options.
The SEC approval of the NYSE Amex Options filing can be found at: http://sec.gov/rules/sro/nyseamex/2012/34-67672.pdf
