BALLISTA GETS FINRA APPROVAL FOR SEPTEMBER LAUNCH OF OPTIONS LIQUIDITY POOL

Posted August 18, 2008

NEW YORK – Electronic options trading platform provider Ballista Securities has received approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the self-regulatory organization for Nasdaq and the NYSE, to launch its electronic liquidity pool for block options and delta neutral trading in September.

“With this approval, Ballista Securities will offer traders the ability to quickly and easily tap into multiple sources of liquidity through our platform, vastly improving the execution of delta-neutral strategies and block trades,” says Robert Newhouse, Chief Executive Officer of Ballista.

Ballista’s pool will aggregate fragmented options liquidity to improve execution of large trades and complex strategies. “Ballista alleviates options market inefficiencies such as information leakage, lengthy execution times and manual processes with an anonymous, secure and time-efficient solution,” says Newhouse.

To address factors that cause options market fragmentation, such as the growth of hedge funds, increased use of option strategies, new exchanges and the growth of passive, off-exchange liquidity, Ballista offers traders anonymous, electronic access to both “public” liquidity found on exchanges and “non-public” liquidity offered by banks, vetted market makers and hedge funds. Ballista is available as a software-based trading platform or via a FIX-based interface.