The Options Industry Conference Brings a "High-Level of Expertise" to Las Vegas

Traders, executives and other options industry professionals will gather in Las Vegas, Nevada next week for the 31st Annual Options Industry Conference. Scheduled to take place from April 24 through April 26 at the Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa, the Options Industry Conference is being touted as the premier event for options traders. "I've been to a number of past events and it brings together a high-level of expertise and a high-level of industry professional into one venue," Andy Nybo, Principal & Head of Derivatives Research at TABB Group, told Benzinga. "[Attendees come] to talk about challenges, to talk about opportunities and to address how the industry needs to evolve, to grow and to become a bigger part of the financial markets." Nybo, who has spent the last decade covering technology in capital markets, is set to give a presentation entitled, "The State of the Listed Options Industry." "[I'll] provide an overview of the options industry -- where it was, where it is and where it will go," said Nybo. "It will be a discussion of how the industry is evolving, the factors that are influencing the growth or lack of growth, and identify some of the trends and issues that will shape the markets of the future." Nybo said that TABB Group is the "only research firm that has a research practice dedicated to the options and futures marketplace." "This presentation fits very nicely with what our core strengths are, and I was asked to kind of help and present at the event," he added. In discussing the target market for the Options Industry Conference, Nybo said that the event's content is "designed to appeal to the professional community; the sell side, the buy side." "It is absolutely a professional-level event designed to address, discuss and kind of identify the major issues and themes that are impacting the marketplace of the options industry today," he said. "This is a conference designed to appeal to higher-level executives from the industry that are on the business side of options trading. "The topics to be discussed are market structure topics, regulatory topics, compliance topics. If you look at the agenda and speaker list, it is veterans of the industry -- well-respected industry practitioners that have been in the industry for a number of years. Nybo expects a number of issues to be addressed at the conference, including the many challenges that are currently affecting the options industry. "We're in a period right now of low volatility and declining trading volumes," said Nybo. "That always presents challenges to the industry -- any industry. As volumes decline, there's less business to go around. Remaining a profitable institution, whether you're on the buy side or the sell side, is a challenge. You need to address internal cost structures, you need to address how to make operations more efficient, and you need to remain profitable in a marketplace where we've seen slowly eroding volume levels." Investors should also keep an eye on regulatory issues and tax proposals. Nybo said that while these may sound good on paper (as they are designed to address a perceived inefficiency in the tax code), they may ultimately do more harm than good. "In real life some of these regulations and tax proposals will have an inordinate impact on the options industry and how options and other types of derivatives are used in sound portfolio practices," said Nybo. "So there's a number of those types of proposals that will simply have deep, unintended consequences that need to be addressed and thought through before they're implemented as part of an overall or bigger tax policy that attempts to raise revenue without really looking at or examining the consequences." Finally, Nybo spoke about the complexity of the market exchange environment. "We have 11 (soon to be 12) exchanges," he said. "Managing the complexity of that type of fragmented liquidity across multiple exchanges is always a challenge. Again, when you have declining volumes and lower profitability, at the same time you have rising costs and rising complexity, it becomes a bigger business challenge. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ