Inside these posts: Options

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CME’s Donohue: No need to bid on NYSE

CME Group CEO Craig Donohue stands in the lobby of its headquarters at 20 S. Wacker St. (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune)

The top executive of CME Group Inc. said the company does not need to bid for NYSE Euronext to bolster CME’s ongoing drive to expand beyond the United States.

Craig Donohue, CEO of the Chicago-based exchange operator, reiterated a focus on organic growth by leveraging CME’s existing futures and options contracts through a broader range of electronic distribution. “We’re very focused on our core business,” Donohue said in an interview Monday with CNBC. Get the full story »

VIX heading for biggest 6-day drop since ‘08

The benchmark measure of U.S. stock options headed for its biggest six-day drop since November 2008 as concern that this month’s Japanese earthquake will curb the global economy eased. Get the full story »

ISE to launch large-size option order

The International Securities Exchange plans to launch next week a controversial type of option order catered for large institutions that took 18 months to be approved by U.S. securities regulators. Get the full story »

Nasdaq may partner with CME on NYSE bid

Chicago's CME Group offices at 30 S. Wacker Drive in Chicago. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune)

Nasdaq OMX Group could launch a rival bid for NYSE Euronext to avoid being left on the sidelines, a source said, as traditional exchanges race to merge to see off upstart electronic rivals.

This is one option Nasdaq, valued at $5.7 billion, is considering as a spate of deals shakes up an industry under intense cost pressure from new entrants such as BATS Global Markets, which last week snapped up rival Chi-X.

Nasdaq’s alternatives include tying up with IntercontinentalExchange Inc or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to wrest NYSE from its planned $10.2 billion takeover by Deutsche Boerse, the source familiar with the matter said. Get the full story »

Oil volatility index jumps on Libya as prices fly

Many option investors bet on higher oil prices and more volatility on Tuesday as the latest wave of unrest in the Middle East engulfed Libya. Get the full story »

CBOE architect Edmund O’Connor dies

Edmund O'Connor, third from left, then CBOE's vice chairman, at bell-ringing ceremony to mark the opening of the CBOE's second trading floor in 1974. (Courtesy CBOE)

Edmund O’Connor, the architect of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and for decades a major figure in Chicago’s derivatives-trading community, died early Monday. Get the full story »

Nasdaq OMX grabs bigger slice of options market

Nasdaq OMX handled nearly a third of all U.S. options trading in December, giving the exchange operator its biggest slice yet of a fast-growing market.

Nasdaq PHLX and its sister platform NOM accounted for 32.7 percent of all stock- and stock-index-options trades in December, figures from the Options Clearing Corp showed. Overall, trading at the nine U.S. options exchanges rose about 16 percent to a daily average of 15.5 million contracts. Get the full story »

CBOE volatility index falls to 2010 low

From Bloomberg News | The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, or VIX, which is considered the benchmark index for U.S. stock options, fell to a three-year low as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index moved in its narrowest range since April 2007 and rose for a fifth day to reach a two-year high.

Sara Lee shares, options up on takeover talk

From Bloomberg News | Sara Lee Corp. was headed for the highest close in almost three years and trading of bullish options jumped to five times the four-week average on speculation that the food company may be acquired.

The shares advanced a fourth day, touching a high of $16.05 around 9 a.m.. Almost 10,000 calls to buy the stock changed hands, six times the number of puts to sell. About half of the call volume was concentrated in December $16 calls, which rose 50 percent. Get the full story>>

Nasdaq OMX No. 1 in options market share

Nasdaq OMX Group’s two option trading venues together handled more volume than rival markets for the third straight month, figures from the Options Clearing Corp. showed on Wednesday. Get the full story »

CBOE’s VIX index seeing burst of copycats

The popularity of the VIX index, which has become a widely watched barometer of investor fear since the financial crisis, is generating a host of spinoffs, copycats and derivatives. It is adding up to big business for VIX’s owner, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, as well as partners and competitors that have developed products pegged to, or inspired by, the VIX. Get the full story »

CME raising margins on some futures

CME Group Inc. is raising the margin requirements on certain futures contracts on the exchange, effective at the close of business Friday, CNBC reported.

Potash CEO exercises $1.26M in options

From Canada’s Globe and Mail | Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan CEO Bill Doyle, of Winnetka, exercised 124,100 stock options this week, worth about $1.26 million less than two months after predicting the company’s stock price would “blow the doors off” its previous record high of about $240.

The options issued to Doyle a decade ago, had an exercise price of $10.16 and were set to expire Sunday. Earlier this year, Doyle exercised a batch of nearly 200,000 options from that same grant for pretax profits of $17.5 million.

BHP Billiton last week withdrew its $38.6 billion hostile takeover bid for Potash, saying it could not convince Canada’s federal government to approve the deal.Get the full story>>

CBOE ups price on ex-members’ share buyback

CBOE Holdings Inc., the biggest U.S. options market operator, boosted its bid for former members’ stock on Monday after its shares rose well above the original offering price. Get the full story »

CBOE’s electronic C2 market launches Oct. 29

A long-planned electronic stock-options market developed by the Chicago Board Options Exchange will open for business Friday, Oct. 29, the company said Wednesday.

Options on the stock of Ford Motor Co. will be the inaugural contract for CBOE’s C2 Options Exchange, with contracts on AT&T Inc., Merck & Co. Inc. and McDonalds Corp. to follow on Nov. 1. Get the full story »