Optiver is a

proprietary trading Proprietary trading (also known as prop trading) occurs when a trader trades stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, their derivatives, or other financial instruments with the firm's own money (instead of using depositors' money) in order to ma ...

firm and

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 '' bid–ask spread'', or ''turn.'' The benefit to the firm is that i ...

for various exchange-listed

financial instruments Financial instruments are monetary contracts between parties. They can be created, traded, modified and settled. They can be cash (currency), evidence of an ownership interest in an entity or a contractual right to receive or deliver in the form ...

. Its name derives from the Dutch , or " option trader". The company is privately owned. Optiver trades listed derivatives, cash equities,

exchange-traded funds An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund and exchange-traded product, i.e. they are traded on stock exchanges. ETFs are similar in many ways to mutual funds, except that ETFs are bought and sold from other owners throughout the d ...

, bonds, and foreign exchange.

History

Optiver was founded by Johann Kaemingk on April 9, 1986, as a market maker in options on the European Options Exchange (EOE), which is now

Euronext Euronext N.V. (short for European New Exchange Technology) is a pan-European bourse that offers various trading and post-trade services. Traded assets include regulated equities, exchange-traded funds (ETF), warrants and certificates, bonds, d ...

. Optiver is a member of the European Principal Traders Association (FIA EPTA),

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backs ...

Principal Trading Group (PTG) in the US and FIA Japan. In November 2016, Optiver was reported to have joined a

consortium A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources fo ...

to build a faster data transmission network between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and Tokyo. In December 2017, Optiver joined with Equiduct to offer a one-stop shop for

best execution Best execution refers to the duty of an investment services firm (such as a stock broker) executing orders on behalf of customers to ensure the best execution possible for their customers' orders. Some of the factors the broker must consider whe ...

. In June 2019, Optiver joined its US-based rival, Virtu, in funding Equiduct, a competitor to national stock exchanges and trading venues. In April 2021, Optiver expanded further into the Asia-Pacific region with an office in Singapore, with a planned focus on commodity and equity products. It joined many other major financial services firms in doing so. The firm first made its presence in the region in Australia in 1996, then

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

in 2005, then

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

in 2007, and then

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

in 2012. In November 2018,

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollm ...

and Optiver partnered to create an Algorithms in Finance course. In June 2022, Optiver joined Acquis Exchange. In September 2022, the firm became the latest trading member on the

Vienna Stock Exchange en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

References

Financial services companies established in 1986 Financial services companies of the Netherlands Companies based in Amsterdam {{finance-company-stub

History

See also

References