Somewhat related (and this is going back a bit), but I traded OTC single stock vol for a second in Japan and everything was quoted/traded in IV terms. Would be great to be able to post an IV level from my retail seat here in the US and relax.
Well, that's a business idea - tied-only options MM via external RFQ. A website of sorts, you can enter simple or spread orders vs a stock reference as a package. If you get done, you'd get it printed on the exchange against your account, again, as a package.
orc or wex. however, if speed is a factor those platforms will get picked off so you end up quoting OTMs ,longer maturities, or a niche market. I know some small groups that have a pit trader and an upstairs guy quoting electronically. Also, rfq if you can get it.
I think you would almost certainly be trading against vol savvy funds. Like all those startup flow desks whose only client would be DE Shaw. Algo market making is all about small non-volatility sensitive order flow (retail customers punting on delta).
To simply install a server in a shared rack in a building that has pretty good proximity is as low as about $100 per month (what "good proximity" means is highly dependent on your broker and /or data provider -- you can always ask them). For exchange colo e.g. in Nasdaq or NYSE's facilities, I think you'll be lucky to spend less than $5000-$10000 per month minimum; there are a lot of minimal add-ons that you'd need, like, do you want Internet access with that? Data? etc. -- they charge for many small things that other providers might include, so beware the apparently-low initial prices that their pricing sheets list. Some brokers such as such as Lightspeed and Lime (and probably many others) and some higher-end data providers (e.g. Activ) will colo your server with them at pretty reasonable rates -- just be cognizant of conflict-of-interest situations with any broker you use (e.g., do they also have an "affiliated" HFT fund trading in the same facility, and if so, how might that compete with or otherwise impact your own trading?).