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Liquidity in the FX options market is being hampered as bid-ask spreads on implied volatility widen, despite a rise in volatility and overall trading volumes, which has unexpectedly resulted in increased options premiums.

Hedge funds seeking alpha have been buying calls on technology and healthcare single stocks on the back of increased cash inflows and corporate share buybacks. This call buying has been hedged with puts on the S&P 500, according to traders.

GFI Group’s board of directors have unanimously agreed to support BGC Partners’ tender offer for all its outstanding stock at $6.10 per share in cash concluding the hostile takeover that BGC initiated last year. This came following the merger agreement that was made between CME Group and GFI in July, which led to a bidding war between the exchange and BGC.

The public dissemination of swap transaction trade data in Ontario is raising fears that trades will be linked to specific firms, thus influencing transaction pricing and making it difficult for firms to hedge their risk, according to lawyers.

The limited number of central counterparties and over-the-counter clearing members in the UK is hampering competition. This could result in a monopolisation of services which may lead to a less resilient economy, according to feedback received by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Average pricing on orders executed on electronic trading venues could be the key to opening up a wider migration to central limit order books from the request-for-quote trading protocol, according to investors.

Saro Jahani, ex-chief information officer at stock exchange Direct Edge, has joined trueEX as CIO in a newly created role, based in New York.

FTSE Group has launched an index that captures emerging markets, China A-shares and China N-shares that can be used to underlie structured products and other financial instruments.

Overall interest rate derivatives trading that was reported to swap data repositories last week decreased by 36% from the previous week, according to data from the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

Deutsche Börse has listed a new unit class of an actively managed exchange-traded fund issued by UBS which enables investors to participate in the performance of a multi-asset portfolio strategy with a euro currency hedge.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has decided to reject a proposal that would require large foreign subsidiaries of Australian authorised deposit-taking institutions and Australian financial services licence holders to report their over-the-counter transactions to data repositories.

Investors are buying volatility on the dollar against the Swiss franc by shorting straddles on the euro versus the dollar.