It wasn't long ago that most Wall Street analysts considered the derivatives markets to be dangerous and arcane financial backwaters. Derivatives might be useful tools for executive compensation or for sophisticated hedge funds, but the real action was in the equity and fixed income markets. These days, with several options exchanges operating as public companies and the remainder considering IPOs, Wall Street analysts/researchers have become regular fixtures in the options industry. While many of these analysts are relative newcomers to this marketplace, they offer a refreshing, amusing and sometimes bizarre perspective on the world of options…

Chair:Michael Ryan, Head of Wealth Management Research – Americas, UBSSpeakers:Brad Bailey, Senior Research Analyst, Aite GroupBrendan Caldwell, President and Chief Executive Officer, Caldwell Investment ManagementRichard Repetto, Partner, Sandler O'Neill & PartnersMike Vinciquerra, Managing Director, Research, BMO Capital Markets

The growth of the retail options business has long been subsidized by taxes on liquidity providers. The revenues from these taxes are then passed onto the order flow providers in the form of payment for order flow. While this practice is highly controversial, it has also contributed to the massive reduction in retail options commissions over the past decade. However, the onset of the maker-taker pricing structure is beginning to threaten that tenuous arrangement. Can the retail brokers survive the squeeze…?

Rising transaction costs have opened up a dramatic new front in the growing war over penny pricing…

The 2nd annual Chicago Trading Forum was an interesting event that brought together a wide variety of options, futures & securities representatives. The forum touched on a host of issues including alternative trading systems, regulatory gridlock, portfolio margining and, of course, penny pricing. However, like any industry gathering, the forum was not without its share of controversy…

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