Options Market France (OMF) () was a French

futures exchange A futures exchange or futures market is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts defined by the exchange. Futures contracts are derivatives contracts to buy or sell specific quantities of a commodity or ...

and clearing house that was absorbed into

MATIF MATIF SA ( French: ''Marché à Terme International de France'') is a private corporation which is both a futures exchange and a clearing house in France. It was absorbed in the merger of the Paris Bourse with Euronext NV to form Euronext Paris. ...

at the end of the 1980s. It was responsible for creating the first

stock index In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market perform ...

of the top French listed companies and provided

futures Futures may mean: Finance *Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract *Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded *''Modern Trader'', formerly Futures, an American finance magazine Music * ''Futures' ...

and options contracts on the index that could be traded. Options Market France started publishing the index in November 1987 in association with the French bank CCF using the Reuters network under the symbol EFX 50. After MATIF absorbed the company, MATIF launched the

CAC 40 The CAC 40 () () is a Benchmark (computing), benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a capitalization-weighted measure of the 40 most significant stocks among the 100 largest market capitalization, market caps on the Euronext Pa ...

which went on to become the definitive index for the French stock market replacing the EFX 50.

Index description

The index was computed from a basket of the 50 most liquid stocks traded on the Paris Stock Exchange, the

Paris Bourse Euronext Paris, formerly known as the Paris Bourse (), is a regulated securities trading venue in France. It is Europe's second largest stock exchange by market capitalization, behind the London Stock Exchange, as of December 2023. As of 2022, th ...

. At the time the

did not exist yet, the French stock exchange instead published (at the end of each trading day) a trend indicator of the French stock market. The data was computed using the closing value of the 240 largest stocks by market value. The EFX 50 was the first stock index in Paris with a streaming update based on the transaction prices of the underlying stocks.

History

In July 1988, it was granted authorization by the

French Ministry of Finance The Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty (, pronounced ), informally referred to as Bercy, is one of the most important ministries in the Government of France. Its minister is one of the most prominent cabinet me ...

to operate as a regulated Futures and Options Exchange.Bulletin mensuel de la Commission des Operations de Bourse 1989 On 21 July 1988, OMF launched two contracts, a

future contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The item tr ...

on the EFX 50 and an

option contract An option contract, or simply option, is defined as "a promise which meets the requirements for the formation of a contract and limits the promisor's power to revoke an offer". Option contracts are common in relation to property (see below) and ...

on the future. The contracts were traded electronically from workstations located in the dealing rooms of the exchange members. The contracts were cash settled. At its launch OMF exchange members included the large European, Japanese and American banks which also traded the notional bond contract on the MATIF.

Market maker A market maker or liquidity provider is a company or an individual that quotes both a buy and a sell price in a tradable asset held in inventory, hoping to make a profit on the difference, which is called the ''bid–ask spread'' or ''turn.'' Thi ...

s on the EFX 50 future contracts included SocGen and BNP. OMF also provided clearing of the contracts and acted as a clearing house. It was granted a bank charter by the

Bank of France The Bank of France ( ) is the national central bank for France within the Eurosystem. It was the French central bank between 1800 and 1998, issuing the French franc. It does not translate its name to English, and thus calls itself ''Banque de F ...

. OMF was thus able to guarantee the trades. In July 1988, OMF was acquired by a consortium of French banks. OMF was later merged into MATIF SA which launched the CAC 40 futures contract.

References

* * * {{cite web , publisher= , year=1989 , url=http://www.amf-france.org/documents/general/5933_1.pdf , title=Bulletin mensuel de la commission des opérations de bourse , language=French , access-date=2011-03-19 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718192604/http://www.amf-france.org/documents/general/5933_1.pdf , archive-date=2011-07-18 , url-status=dead Commodity exchanges in France Stock exchanges in Europe NYSE Euronext Defunct stock exchanges 1988 establishments in France

Index description

History

See also

References