BATS to Launch US Options Exchange
Published July 8th, 2009
BATS Global Markets, an innovative global financial markets technology company, announced plans to launch a US equity options exchange and is targeting live trading on the platform in early 2010.
Jeromee Johnson, hired by BATS Exchange as vice president of market development in April 2009, will be heavily involved in BATS Options. Mr. Johnson was previously president of 3D Markets, a nationally recognized provider of software and technology for institutional equity options trading, and also spent time at Tabb Group and UNX.
“We are excited to move forward with BATS Options and are appreciative of the outstanding feedback and support from our investors and current exchange members,” said Joe Ratterman, chief executive of BATS Global Markets and BATS Exchange. “We plan to take the successful business model used in the US and Europe, led by our innovative technology platform, to Make Markets Better in US equity options trading.
“I’m also proud of our employees who have played a role in BATS reaching this stage, particularly Ken Conklin and Jeromee Johnson, who have provided great leadership to get us to this point,” he said.
Mr. Conklin is global head of business development for BATS and, just as with BATS Europe, did a great deal of the work investigating this platform.
In just 3 ½ years, BATS Exchange has captured nearly 12% market share in U.S. equities. BATS Europe, operating as a pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF), is trading 4% to 8% of major European indices such as the FTSE 100 and CAC 40 only eight months after launching.
About BATS
BATS Global Markets (BATS) is an innovative global financial markets technology company headquartered in the Kansas City, Mo., area with additional offices in New York and London. The BATS platform was launched in January 2006 and, operating as BATS Exchange, Inc. is one of the fastest growing, top tier equity markets in the United States. BATS serves the European market through its London based, FSA-authorised subsidiary, BATS Europe, which operates a Multilateral Trading Facility for European securities. The BATS platform is internally developed by a dedicated core team of market and technology professionals, catering to the needs of the broker-dealer and trading community. BATS … Making Markets Better.
