The biggest institutional options brokerage gave a thumbs-up to the International Securities Exchange’s new clean cross.
While institutional brokers largely remained silent during the two years of public debate over the ISE’s qualified contingent cross (QCC), competitor exchanges and market makers were outspoken in their criticism of the product. Because clean crosses are not exposed to other traders, the product is tantamount to internalization and threatens the market’s integrity, they argued. Although a QCC must be for at least 1,000 contracts, some predict, that in time, that number will come down, removing even more order flow from public competition.
The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the QCC earlier this year.
