market makers

Alphacution Publishes “The Chicago Trading Company” Case Study

In this 71-page, 69-exhibit chart book, “The Chicago Trading Company,” Alphacution continues its focus on the explosion of activity in US option markets with a deep dive into another leading option trading firm, CTC, LLC. In this report, Alphacution leverages evolving modeling capabilities to explore its first example of a proprietary trading firm with core concentration in index options along with the peripheral suite of cash, futures and other option products used to capture volatility arbitrage opportunities. Furthermore, this research sets the stage to potentially identify (and rank) other large index option players with similar strategies where the regulatory data is not specifically disclosing exposures to index options. The complete chart book is available to premium subscribers or via individual document purchase.

By |2022-04-12T15:11:44-04:00March 31st, 2022|For Subscribers|
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A Regulatory Outlook for Off-Exchange Market Makers in the Aftermath of the GameStop Hearings

Alphacution contributor, Stanislav Dolgopolov, provides a detailed review of potential regulatory issues - including payment for order flow (PFOF), the multiplicity of roles of off-exchange market makers, and their informational advantages, among others - that may receive new scrutiny in the aftermath of the GameStop congressional hearings.

By |2021-05-26T21:57:00-04:00May 26th, 2021|Open|
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Simplex Trading: Against the Odds

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”Henry Ford On occasion, we have framed the world's leading proprietary trading firms with the following graphic: And, as many of you know, this is the terrain upon which we have focused a notable component of our attention to date - and likely where we will place a disproportionate share of our attention going forward. This is partly due to the fact that this group bears out-sized responsibility for a quiet cascade of impacts throughout the global markets ecosystem, and partly because there are so few others that have managed to marry such scale with such creativity. This dynamic is made more notable by the idea that winner-take-all market dynamics that tend to reinforce an "incumbency of incumbents" make such an ascension less likely than the previous unlikeliness from all the yesterdays before... That said, based on our ongoing surveillance of the broader landscape, there are always exceptions. If you watch [...]

By |2020-10-16T23:50:57-04:00October 16th, 2020|For Subscribers|
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Virtu Financial: Master Exploder, Part I

"As you think, so shall you become." - Bruce Lee   Like a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest, sometimes the scenario is grim. And yet sometimes, the tailwinds converge in your favor - like a three-legged man in an ass kicking contest - and the scenario presents itself very much to the contrary... Historically, Alphacution has not been shy about pointing out the former. Who can forget "Virtu Financial: The Frying Pan and the Fire" from August 2019; a favorite of @Dougielarge, for sure? But, to give credit where credit is due, this story is quintessentially about the latter scenario: Today (May 7), Virtu Financial reported Q1 2020 earnings and, given an extra appetizer of preview from the company on March 20, it was - to borrow a riff from Tenacious D - "The. Best. Quarter. Ever. Period!" Now, it's no secret to anybody on the planet why a strong Q1 was to be expected from Virtu because nearly everyone on the planet is directly impacted by the [...]

By |2020-10-14T21:40:04-04:00May 7th, 2020|For Subscribers|
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