Euronext Launches French & Belgian Single Stock Offering Amidst High Demand

Euronext, Europe’s largest exchange, has supplemented its offering with the launch of new weekly options on single stocks on both the Euronext Paris and Brussels derivatives markets, according to a Euronext statement.

More specifically, the exchange will see the addition of multiple short-term option classes on three Belgian shares (AB InBev, KBC Groep and UCB) and seven French shares (AXA, BNP Paribas, ENGIE, Orange, Peugeot, Societe Generale and Total).

The launch aims to capture some of the success of Euronext’s weekly options on Dutch stocks, having been reinforced lately from market participants – back in July 2010, Euronext initiated its weekly Dutch options offering, which as of late has managed to notch increasing average daily volumes.

Dutch options at Euronext in 2015 alone have seen a 60% YoY increase relative to the same year-to-date (YTD) period in 2014, with a steadfast 215% growth YoY from 2013. Euronext hopes to see a similar growth with its new offering. One important attraction of its weekly options is its inherently lower cost to trade than longer-dated alternatives. Furthermore, weekly options can benefit from the Volatility Volatility In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Traders In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Traders Read this Term of an individual share with short-term trading strategies.

According to Cathal Hardiman of Susquehanna International Securities Limited, in a recent statement on the new offering, “We are excited to see Euronext offering more products in this major growth area. Weekly options have seen significant growth in Europe this year, and are already very well established in the US (accounting for 25% of total options volume traded in 2014, according to TABB Group). As well as these new listings, Susquehanna market makes weeklies in all names where they are listed, and interacts with a high proportion of the weekly volumes traded in Europe.”

“With the launch of weekly options, we are answering the needs of the well-informed investor looking to Leverage Leverage In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders Read this Term price fluctuations in blue chip stocks. By rolling out the successful franchise on Dutch stocks to Euronext Brussels and Paris, we are now the reference market for weekly options on Euronext listed stocks,” added Adam Rose, Head of Financial Derivatives of Euronext, in an accompanying statement.

Earlier this month, Euronext released its trading volumes for the month ending July 2015, having incurred a notable MoM decline from this past June. Euronext’s cash order book came in at just $8,590 million in July 2015, representing a fall of -12.3% MoM from June 2015.