OptionsCity Software Inc.

OptionsCity Software, Inc., founded in 2006, was a Chicago-based financial technology company that provided real-time electronic trading solutions to options market makers and traders. It was a certified ISV (Independent Software Vendor) on the CBOE, CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX, CFE, CBSX, ICE, NYSE AMEX, C2, BOX, and MX. It was acquired by Vela Trading Technologies in 2017 and was rebranded to the Vela name. Vela was subsequently acquired by Exegy.
== History ==
OptionsCity was started in 2006 by three software professionals and friends who shared the same passion and vision for technology and options trading. 
OptionsCity released its electronic trading and market making platform OptionsCity Metro to its first client group in August of 2007 with connectivity to one exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). OptionsCity completed connectivity and certification to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), in December of 2007, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) in May of 2008, followed by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) AMEX. OptionsCity currently offers connectivity to 14 exchanges. 
In November of 2009, OptionsCity entered into a strategic partnership with ACTIV Financial, a global manager of fully managed low-latency market data solutions. ACTIV provides OptionsCity equity options traders with additional feeds, including both direct and fully managed consolidated market data feeds.
On April 12 of 2011, OptionsCity Software announced that it had signed a service partner agreement with YJT Solutions, a technology consulting firm, to extend its support team and provide additional support services to OptionsCity’s growing customer base. 
OptionsCity annually presents the Chicago Algorithmic Trading Conference: For Developers, By Developers, a premier algorithmic development event that presents educational sessions, expert discussion panels, and interactive workshops covering the hottest topics in algorithmic development and trading.
On April 9 of 2013, OptionsCity announced a Series A investment in its business by growth equity firm Edison Ventures. This marks the first institutional capital investment in OptionsCity and will give Edison a minority ownership stake in the company. Edison’s investment will accelerate OptionsCity’s sales and marketing efforts, product innovation, and international expansion.
On September 9, 2103 OptionsCity continued its European expansion with the opening of a London office.
On November 6, 2013, OptionsCity announced its connectivity to Eurex Exchange.
On November 20, 2014 OptionsCity acquired Optionshop, a provider of futures trading technology. The acquisition expanded the company's product set, adding new tech capabilities to its suite of trading tools, and gave it new brokerage clients.
== Products and Services ==
OptionsCity Metro is a fully configurable electronic trading and market making platform that creates a distinctive edge by enabling options traders to have full control over trading, safety, and risk management. OptionsCity Metro provides options traders with an intuitive interface, a dynamic quoting engine, mitigates risk substantially with an integrated risk management tool, lowers high-scale costs, and increases reliability.
OptionsCity's website offers a blog with regular updates from financial reporter Suzanne Cosgrove. 
On August 22, 2011, OptionsCity unveiled Metro 3.0, offering new functionality including modeling and pricing enhancements, an Asian Pricing Model to meet the needs of its energy traders, quoting information management and major performance improvements.
In September of 2011, OptionsCity released Freeway, a low-latency server-based algorithmic trading platform designed for deploying user-built multi-asset strategies.
In May of 2012, OptionsCity launched Algo Store™ the ‘iTunes’ of trading world - an online algorithm repository and collaborative developer community that provides a market for traders and developers to create, purchase, and download trading algorithms, available at algostore.optionscity.com.
As of January of 2013, OptionsCity offers a centralized online client resource hub to further serve its clients’ support and training needs. The client resource hub can be accessed through Algo Store.
On October 22, 2013, OptionsCity introduced Freeway Analytics, a simulation platform that allows traders and developers to build and back-test strategies quickly.
== Awards ==
In February of 2012, OptionsCity Metro was named "Best Options Trading Platform" by Wall Street Letter in the Institutional Trading Awards. 
In October of 2012, OptionsCity Freeway, the firm’s breakthrough multi-asset automated trading platform, won the Chicago Innovation Awards for its fast and powerful algo development-to-deployment cycle.
OptionsCity CEO Hazem Dawani was named in the 2012 Crain's 40 under 40 list. The publication honors influential up-and-comers with this award, specifically recognizing Chicago professionals who have made a significant impact in their respective fields before age 40.
== References ==
Category:Independent Software Vendors
Category:Options Firms
Category:Options
Category:MarketsWiki Page of the Day