I used to have trade alert. I really liked the service. Outside of Bloomberg, it was the only other service I would subscribe to as a retailer.
I liked the block trading commentary. It made me aware of what others were doing that was interesting.
May I ask what is CBOE's business model? Are they an exchange like NYSE or are they a broker, investment banker, prop shop, selling data, selling trading services...? Are there any conflict serves as an exchange and then provide trading services and trade consulting?
Great question Ironchef and thanks for the link ajacobson Cboe started as an exchange getting preferential treatment from regulators but have morphed into a holding company with investment and trading solutions. Here's from their annual report. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. is one of the world’s largest exchange holding companies, offering cutting-edge trading and investment solutions to investors around the world. The Company is committed to defining markets to benefit its participants and drive the global marketplace forward through product innovation, leading edge technology and seamless trading solutions... Hanweck and FT Options, two best-in-class companies in the fast-growing financial market data sector, bring complementary derived data products and services to our Information Solutions offering. The addition of their cutting-edge services allow us to take the trading experience to the next level by enabling our customers to evaluate their portfolio risk throughout the life cycle of a transaction—from pre-trade to at-trade and post-trade.Add to that Trade-Alert to their stable including LiveVol and others like Vest and TradeLegs. Potential conflicts abound in as you mention in both offering exchange services, trading services and trade consulting but also in the competitive landscape where the charge ridiculous market data rates to other firms offering similar services.
Regarding market data fees: Stock Exchanges Win Legal Battle With SEC Over Data Fees https://www.wsj.com/articles/court-...ncreases-for-exchanges-data-feeds-11591383268 The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit appears to end a 14-year legal dispute over fees that exchanges charge for data that show the most complete view of market activity. Brokers, traders and investors say the information is essential for pricing orders and responding to market conditions... The impact of Friday’s decision forecloses one avenue that brokers had to challenge market-data fees. The SEC can still suspend fee increases if it acts within 60 days after the exchanges file a notice indicating they will change prices... The SEC has taken other steps that could put pressure on exchanges’ revenue from market data, including a rule proposal in February that would force exchanges to expand the information they provide through public data feeds. If the SEC adopts the rule, the public data products could become a substitute for the faster, richer and more expensive “proprietary” feeds that were the subject of the lawsuit decided on Friday... Banks and brokers, including those that serve investors such as mutual funds, have pushed for the SEC’s intervention, saying the exchanges have a monopoly over packaged data that includes trades and price quotes. Some investors say they can’t get the best price for their trades if they don’t use the most up-to-date and information-rich data feeds. Sifma, which represents Wall Street banks and brokers, said it continues to believe the fees don’t meet legal standards and represent a barrier to competition.
No problem, soon enough retailers will move to trading crypto equivalents of their products and exchanges will be used as nothing but reference data. Let’s see the value of their feeds when the “dumb money” is no longer in their books. I bet payment for order flow already made their feeds less valuable.