BATS Global Markets, the operator of US equities exchange BATS, has announced plans to launch a US equity options exchange, and is targeting live trading on the platform in early 2010.
Jeromee Johnson, the former president of options trading technology provider 3D Markets, who BATS hired in April as vice president of market development, will be heavily involved in the platform, dubbed BATS Options.
“We are excited to move forward with BATS Options and are appreciative of the outstanding feedback and support from our investors and current exchange members,” said Joe Ratterman, chief executive of BATS Global Markets and BATS Exchange.
BATS, which launched three and-a-half years ago in the US, had a matched market share of 10.72% of US equities trading in June.
The firm launched BATS Europe, a pan-European multilateral trading facility, on 31 October 2008. The platform is now trading 4-8% of major European indices such as the FTSE 100 and CAC 40.