Retail Stock Traders: Return to 201X?
Are retail investors becoming "burned out" on stocks? Alphacution makes its case...
Alphacution Press: Time Magazine on Peak6 Co-Founder Jenny Just
"I tell women, ‘You don’t have to be a trader the rest of your life. But if you can understand options, you can sit at any table in any industry, in any position, and understand what’s going on with the money. And that’s where all the decisions are.' "Jenny Just, Co-Founder, Peak6 This one lands a little close to home for me... Jenny Just and I were contemporaries - in both cases, our first jobs out of college; in both cases, within the equity options group - at O'Connor & Associates (OCA) in the early 1990's. Since then, we've been on dramatically different journeys, as explained in Time Magazine's recent profile "The Female Billionaire Thinks the Secret to Women's Wealth Is Poker." by editor-at-large, Belinda Luscombe... It will not mean much to most readers here, however, to be quoted in the same paragraph as "the brain" - Clay Struve - around which so much of OCA's success was built is quite an achievement, particularly from the perspective of my younger [...]
US Stock Market Has Sprung A Strange Leak
The US equity securities "universe" demonstrated an unprecedented expansion from mid-2020 through mid-2022. Alphacution illustrates how this macro trend has turned - along with possible impacts - via the data of leading wholesale equity market makers...
PFOF Cage Match, Q1 2023
Alphacution shares highlights - and lots of charts - from the most recent trove of PFOF data...
0DTE SWAG: Retail Share of Index Options
Alphacution found a few grains of new data and used them to estimate the retail share of US equity index volume...
Case Study: “IMC Financial Markets and the 0DTE Option Boom”
In this 98-page, 115-exhibit, 22,400-word case study, “IMC: International Marketmakers Combination,” Alphacution publishes its findings on global option market maker and equity index option specialist, Amsterdam-based IMC BV and its affiliates, including – most notably – its US-based affiliate, IMC-Chicago, LLC (often known as IMC Financial Markets). Founded in 1989 by two floor traders on Amsterdam’s European Options Exchange, today IMC is one of only three Tier I proprietary trading firms with legacy in the 1980’s – along with legendary option trading houses, Philadelphia-based Susquehanna International Group, LLP and Amsterdam-based Optiver BV – and one of only eight “prop firms” globally with more than 1,000 employees. Beyond showcasing certain achievements, revenue, risk framework, and trading preferences of IMC, this case study – Alphacution’s 17th such report showcasing the world’s leading technology-enhanced trading firms – also provides context for the boom in zero days to expiry (0DTE) options and its impacts on a constellation of US option market makers… This and related case studies are available to premium and enterprise subscribers or via individual document purchase…
Simplex Trading: Speed Bump? What Speed Bump?!
Alphacution assembles new evidence related to option market maker, Simplex Trading
Market Terraforming: Zero-Day Options Alter Landscape
Alphacution showcases a subtle yet important impact of the explosive zero days to expiration (0DTE) phenomenon in US equity option markets...
Under 100 Milliseconds: G1X Enters The Arena…
Alphacution adds Susquehanna International Group (SIG) affiliate G1 Execution Services market center "ETMM" and 14 new charts to the ongoing comparison of execution speed/time that already includes Jane Street, Citadel Securities, and Virtu Financial. Again, with each step, this analysis yields new insights and increasing fascination...
Under 100 Milliseconds: Jane Street Enters The Picture
Alphacution adds Jane Street market center "JNST" and 18 new charts to the ongoing comparison of execution speed/time that already includes Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial. With each step, this analysis yields new insights and increasing fascination...
