ICE closes US trade floor as Options go Electronic

The ICE Futures U.S exchange (formerly the NY Board of Trade) is closing its trading floor from October 2012 as volume goes electronic. All options listed on ICE Futures U.S will then trade exclusively through its electronic trading system.

Ben Jackson is president of the US business. He started his career in the Financial Services Strategy Practice of Andersen Consulting.

In April 2011, electronic execution accounted for approximately 10% of ICE US options volume, compared to more than 75% today - a strong validation signal that the physical trading floor was a waste of space. Mr Jackson previously championed mass adoption of Kiodex - an ASP-based commodities risk management platform for corporate hedgers owned by SunGard.

London Stock Exchange Launches Millennium

Millennium Exchange is the LSE's new trading platform. The trading gateway is based on FIX 5.0. It also incorporates an FTP/SFTP reference data service which publishes data every trading day.

Plus moves from Small Cap Equities to Derivatives

Plus Markets provide quote-driven execution for small cap equities. Plus competes with Chi-X and LSE's multi-dealer platforms. Plus is expanding into interest rate swaps which have seen a rise in interest in recent months; there is speculation of a total shift from OTC to on-exchange when financial regulations kick in in the US in June. This has also put pressure on banks to up their single-dealer platforms too. Examples of single-dealer platforms are Deutsche Bank's AutoBahn, Barclay's BARX and Morgan Stanley's Matrix.

Cross Holdings in American Exchanges

BM&FBovespa (an equities and derivatives exchange based in Sao Paulo) is raising its stake in Chicago's CME to 5% (CME already owns 5% of BM&FBovespa). As a result BM&F will sit on CME's board and the two exchanges will marshal a workforce of 150 developers to create a new multi-asset trading platform, with commercial rights in Latin America given to BMFB and CME owning rights to the rest of the world. BM&F used NYSE Euronext Advanced Trading Solutions to help develop its trading platform.