CAVEAT EMPTOR: US Equity Options Market Traders Face Pricing, Transparency, Cost of Execution Issues, Says TABB - With 15 Exchanges And Multiple Pricing Models, Transparency Of Order Flow Can Be Masked By Complexity Of How Orders Are Routed And Executed

According to new research from TABB Group, “Equity Options: Transparency and Simplicity are Clearly Not the Same,” with no dark pools, hidden trades, internalization schemes and each execution hitting the tape being posted on a licensed and regulated exchange, trading in US equity options has propelled volume to more than 15 million contracts a day in May 2018 alone, as retail customers and firms continue to enter the space.