Options Exchange Idea

Discussion in 'Options' started by Aquarians, Jul 18, 2025 at 3:34 PM.

  1. A lot of effort goes into updating option quote prices when the underlier price changes, with market makers scrambling for the faster code possible and all before arbitrage seekers catch them with the pants down (quoting an outdated option price which can be arbitraged by the new underlier price).

    But, what if instead quoting in price, one would quote options in volatility? There would be waay less movement required on part of option qotes at various strikes, only thing that matter being underlier price, which is just one, not hundreds of strikes to update. How would an execution look like when you got no price to begin with? A pair: (underlier, volatility) priced at Black-Scholes valuation.

    Volatility would be pretty much constant at a given strike and the only variable to optimize for would be another market for the underlier.
     
  2. demoncore

    demoncore


    Breaking news!

    OTC markets have been quoted in vol for decades. Thanks for playing. Does nothing to improve latency or requotes. Vols and prices are on your frontend and MMers are bots (like your account here).
     
    Aquarians likes this.
  3. Robert Morse

    Robert Morse Sponsor

    Market makers stream quotes right now based on their Vol curve. This is not a new idea.

     
  4. Well yeah, but stream directly vol quotes? I don't know about that.

    @demoncore Can you please give an example of such OTC market?
     
  5. 2rosy

    2rosy

  6. Robert Morse

    Robert Morse Sponsor

    Yes, the quotes were based on the ATM Vol plus a vol curve. I used Actant Quote.

     
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