In return for being allowed to trade for their own accounts, market makers, like ROTs, have certain affirmative duties, such as making a market upon request for the classes of options in which they are registered. One exchange permits market makers to improve the quoted market by directly inputting their better quotes into the automated display system. All of the options exchanges have automated execution systems for small retail customer market or marketable limit orders. Limit orders at prices that are away from the market are generally entered into the electronic limit order book. Limit orders that are not qualified for the book or the auto-ex system 11 may be routed to a member firm's booth on the trading floor, to a floor broker's handheld computer or a stationary computer in a trading crowd, or, on some options exchanges, to the specialist for manual handling.
Customer limit orders on the options exchanges can reach the trading crowds in one of several ways.
As stated above, on some exchanges, orders may be routed to the crowds electronically through the exchange's automated order routing system. These electronically-routed orders may also be routed, on two of the options exchanges, to a floor broker in the trading crowd who is positioned at a computer terminal or is using a handheld computer that is equipped to receive orders from the order routing system. Orders can also be transmitted via telephone to the member firm's booth on the trading floor, and then delivered to the crowd by a runner. On two of the options exchanges, all system-eligible orders that are transmitted via telephone to the member firm's booth on the trading floor can be entered into the exchange's automated order routing system via a booth entry system. Beginning in 1976, the CSE phased out its physical trading floor and replaced it with an electronic system that connects CSE members located in geographically dispersed locations.