City News

OptionsCity Announces Investment from Edison Ventures

Chicago, IL - April 9, 2013 - OptionsCity Software, a leading provider of electronic trading solutions, today announced a Series A investment in its business by growth equity firm Edison Ventures. This marks the first institutional capital investment in OptionsCity and will give Edison a minority ownership stake in the company. Edison’s investment will accelerate OptionsCity’s sales and marketing efforts, product innovation, and international expansion.

Mike Cichowski, Principal, and Chris Sugden, Managing Partner of Edison Ventures, led the investment. Sugden commented that “OptionsCity is a proven innovator. We believe Freeway represents the next major development for options and futures trading. Traders demand a multi-asset capability where they can quickly test and deploy new strategies. OptionsCity’s customers repeatedly confirmed this capability.”Mike Cichowski noted “OptionsCity is a profitable, fast growing company bringing innovative technology to the derivatives market and we are excited to partner with the management team to assist with the company’s global expansion”. Along with this investment, the OptionsCity Board of Directors will expand to include Mike Cichowski, along with Joe Wald, former CEO of EdgeTrade and Executive Vice President at Gain Capital. Read Press Release.

OptionsCity Expands Management Team, Renews Commitment to Customer Care

Chicago, May 23, 2013 – OptionsCity Software announced today that Timo Pentner has joined the company as Executive Vice President of Services. Mr. Pentner will oversee all support, onboarding, and training operations in the U.S. and Europe. 

Mr. Pentner’s industry experience includes 15 years focused on all process steps of software development, IT management, team building,
and leading workflow creation within global companies. He spent the last eight years at RTS Realtime Systems where he was instrumental in conceptualizing and executing strategies aligned with customer service and business development goals.  

“I am honored and excited to join OptionsCity at a time when the company is preparing for significant growth,” remarked Mr. Pentner. “I have always viewed OptionsCity as a great service provider in a competitive industry that continuously focuses on innovation and customer service. I am fortunate to become part of an excellent management team and look forward to working with the OptionsCity staff to further develop the already extensive service suite.” Read Press Release.         

OptionsCity Unveils Metro 4.1

Chicago, March 21, 2013 – OptionsCity Software today initiated the global rollout of Metro 4.1, the newest version of its award-winning market making and electronic trading platform.

Upgrades and enhancements in Metro 4.1 include visualization and infrastructural expansions as well as a sophisticated statement reconciliation feature that reduces operational risk and supports detailed drill-down views of reconciliation matches and discrepancies. Improvements have also been made to boost risk reporting and flex trades support in Metro.

A hallmark of Metro 4.1 is the patent-pending SmartComplete™ feature that allows for a reduction in response time for pricing complex spreads. Enhancements have also been made to the market making engine, allowing for optimal quote prioritization. Metro 4.1 clients also have access to the CityXchange (CX) API to build and integrate their own connectivity adapters. Read Press Release.

OptionsCity Rings NASDAQ bell

As an extension of the Chicago Innovation Award win for our automated trading platform, Freeway, OptionsCity rang the NASDAQ closing bell on Monday 2/25 at 2:57pm CST (3:57 EST).

The Chicago Innovation Awards is the only organization in the country dedicated to honoring the most innovative new products and services brought to market from a specific region. This year nearly 400 nominations were received by 13 judges, representing a wide range of Chicago’s business community, who completed an exhaustive and complex judging process to select OptionsCity's Freeway software as a winner for its breakthrough approach to multi-asset automated trading.

Read more about OptionsCity's participation in the NASDAQ closing bell ceremony and view photos from the day here.

Share our experience by viewing the closing bell VIDEO here.

OptionsCity Freeway Powers University of Chicago Trading Competition

Chicago, February 25, 2013 – OptionsCity Software, a leading provider of electronic trading solutions, today announced their contribution to the University of Chicago Midwest Trading Competition taking place April 12-13 at the Gleacher Center. The firm’s Freeway software will serve as the sole automated trading platform for students to develop algorithmic strategies and execute mock trades.

“We are delighted to partner with University of Chicago in their inaugural trading competition,” remarked Hazem Dawani, CEO of OptionsCity. “We look forward to working with this group of nationally recognized students from top universities who will become the future contributors and leaders of the financial industry.”

“In order to make this event a reality, we needed a platform that could handle advanced algorithmic trading, as opposed to other competitions that only incorporate open-outcry, point and click trading, and basic modeling in excel,” remarked  Darrell Zechman, Program Director at the UChicago Careers in Business: Financial Markets. “After comparing other potential platforms it was quite obvious OptionsCity Freeway platform hit on all the right buttons.” Read Press Release.

OptionsCity Rolls Out Online Client Resource Hub

Chicago, January 28, 2013 – OptionsCity Software, a leading provider of end-to-end electronic trading solutions, today announced the launch of a new online resource hub to further serve its clients’ support and training needs.

The portal can be accessed through the Algo Store website and will allow existing Metro, Freeway, and Algo Store users around the clock access to product documentation, video tutorials, feature upgrade and new functionality notifications, support and API documentation, FAQs, and other valuable client tools. OptionsCity clients will receive e-mail notifications containing log-in instructions and more details in the coming weeks.

“We are committed to offering our customers an innovative site to serve as a centralized resource and to supplement existing 24/7 live support,” remarked Lynn Roach, head of training at OptionsCity. “Our reputation for providing unparalleled client care is one we are dedicated to exceeding through offerings such as the client resource hub.” Read press release.

 

OptionsCity Metro wins “Best Options Trading Platform” award

Metro recognized for second consecutive year by Wall Street Letter Institutional Trading Awards

Chicago, February 14, 2013 – OptionsCity Software, Inc. today announced that its flagship trading and market making platform, Metro, has been named “Best Options Trading Platform - Client Service” by Wall Street Letter in the 2013 Institutional Trading Awards. This marks the second consecutive win for Metro in the options trading platform category. 

“We are delighted to be recognized for our innovation and contribution to the electronic trading community,” remarked Jerald David, CBDO of OptionsCity. "We congratulate Wall Street Letter on their successful event and thank them for our award." Read Press Release.

   


OptionsCity Hosts 1st Annual Midwinter Soiree

This past Wednesday the 23rd, OptionsCity hosted the first annual Client Appreciation Midwinter Soiree. After the hustle-bustle of the holidays, we wanted to treat our clients to an evening of relaxation and leisure.

Vertigo Sky Lounge, atop the dana hotel and spa, provided a sleek and sophisticated 26th floor reprieve from the usual name-tagged, networking-style event. The gratitude to our clients and partners was the focus of the evening - not more shop talk.

The luxurious bathrobes available on the patio were a surprisingly fun treat for a January night in Chicago. Guests gathered around the fire pits, taking in the rooftop city views.

At the end of the evening, guests were presented with a travel-size OptionsCity optical mouse as a token of our appreciation. 

Thank you to all who attended and made this event a success. We plan to make this an annual event moving forward, so mark this as a "can't miss" on your event calendar.

More photos from the evening can be viewed on the OptionsCity Flickr page. 

OptionsCity Metro Nominated for "Best options trading platform"

OptionsCity Software's flagship trading and market making platform, Metro, has once again been nominated for “Best options trading platform” and also "Best trading platform client service" by Wall Street Letter in the 2013 Institutional Trading Awards. The awards are determined by an independent panel of industry experts and are judged on the level of innovation and client satisfaction displayed by applicants.

OptionsCity Metro won the "Best options trading platform" award in 2012. This year's awards ceremony will take place on February 13th at Cipriani on 42nd Street in New York. The Institutional Trading Awards recognize distinction among top providers to the trading industry and are presented by The Wall Street Letter, an online provider of "unrivaled in-depth intelligence on the latest trading and technology happenings".

Metro was nominated alongside other distinguished financial technology providers, including Orc Group, Fidessa, FlexTrade Systems, SunGard
and Tethys Technology.

OptionsCity Metro provides an ultra-low latency, server-based solution. OptionsCity clients continue to be among the fastest in the market in quoting and are able to react to market conditions quicker than their competition through a streamlined feature set that includes a quoting engine, theoretical value generator, skew manipulation, and electronic trade sheets. 

 

OptionsCity Software expands Algo Store and developer community around Freeway

Chicago, December 13, 2012 – OptionsCity Software, a leading provider of end-to-end electronic trading solutions, today announced the expansion of Algo Store™, the firm’s online marketplace for traders and developers to create, purchase, and download trading algorithms available at algostore.optionscity.com.

The expansion has resulted in additional certified developers providing a 25% increase in the Algo Store repository. New automated strategies are available for download and include volatility curve management, complex execution strategies as well as the StockTwits News Feed, a component that provides access to the most active social data feed geared towards the financial community.

“We are excited to provide a new audience of traders with seamless on-demand playback of historical market data for backtesting and analytics integration,” comments James Austin, CEO of Vertex Analytics. “Algo Store is a great tool for exposing our services to OptionsCity Freeway users. Algo Store’s innovative technical infrastructure allowed for easy integration and algo submission.” Read press release.