The options market has made impressive technological advances in recent years. Order routing, linkage mechanisms, trading platforms and many other tools of the trade have received significant upgrades. Perhaps the best examples of these upgrades are the modern linkage and order routing systems.
Eight years ago, a market maker had to pick up a phone and physically send a broker out to a competing trading crowd if he wanted to move a market. The entire process could take ten or twenty minutes, during which time the market maker and the customer were hung. It was a slow and dangerous process that left an overwhelmingly negative impression on the customer.
Today, that entire process is executed automatically. The round trip of an order, from the initial mouse click on a broker's website to the execution and fill reporting, is measured in microseconds. If you add a few more seconds to that tally, the customer can even receive price improvement on his order. We've certainly come a long way in the past eight years.
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A Strange Dichotomy
Unfortunately, while the world of options trading placed a premium on technology, the world of options information did not follow suit. This was particularly true when it came to the online realm.
The result was a strange dichotomy in which firms spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing smart routers and trading platforms. However, many of those same firms didn't even have websites. This was the world into which The Options Insider launched in January 2007.
The Options Insider was the first major options information destination to embrace an advertising-supported business model. While this is a relatively standard practice in other industries, it was met with quite a few blank stares in the options industry. The notion of giving away options content ran counter to the subscription model that has dominated the industry for the last thirty years.
It was also predicated on the existence of online advertising, something that has been very slow to take root in the options market. As a result, we've spent a great deal of time educating the firms in this industry on the basics of the online world. The past year and a half have been an interesting ride. The recent proliferation of firms offering free online options content is a testament to the fact that our initial vision of this marketplace was correct.
New Content Sections
As you may have noticed, there are new sections of The Options Insider - "Education" and "Unusual Activity." These sections are expanded versions of the "education" and "trading activity" sub-sections that were located in the "Trading and Technology" section. These new expanded sections are designed to reflect the growing needs of Options Insider users as well as the growing demand for this targeted options content. Look for new content and new sub-sections in Education and Unusual Activity in the coming weeks.
A Host Of New Features
We may not have the R and D budget of a major options trading firm. But we are firmly committed to providing new features and new functionality for our users. Allow me to run down some of the recent upgrades that we have made at the site:
Options Insider Mobile For The Iphone
The new Iphone is a runaway hit with our audience. Its 3G data network, along with a fantastic mobile web browser, make it the perfect portable internet device. Many of our visitors use the Iphone to keep tabs on the latest options news, articles and analysis from The Options Insider.
So we decided to offer a free gift to all of the Iphone and Ipod Touch owners in our audience. The Options Insider development team recently put the finishing touches on Options Insider Mobile. Options Insider Mobile is a free web application that is designed to take advantage of the unique functionality of those devices. In fact, we were fortunate enough to have Apple recognize Options Insider Mobile as a featured Iphone application. This customized application provides instant access to:
- Breaking Options News: Get up-to-the-minute options headlines delivered straight to your Iphone or Ipod Touch.
- Expert Options Articles: Read the latest articles from The Options Insider’s vast network of options experts.
- Options Insider Radio: Listen to the latest episodes of Options Insider Radio, one of the most popular options podcasts in the country.
- Options Discussion Center: Review the latest options questions, comments and insights from the Options Insider community.
Many of our users asked for a way to stay up-to-date with The Options Insider using their email accounts. So we created our Targeted Email Alert system. Options Insider members can now upgrade their accounts to receive daily, weekly or "as-it-happens" email alerts.
The daily email alerts will be sent at 4pm Central. The weekly email alerts will be sent every Friday at 4pm Central. The "as-it-happens" alerts will be sent as soon as new information is posted to the website. These upgrades are completely free and available to all registered members of www.theoptionsinsider.com.
The registration process for the targeted email alerts is simple. If you are an existing member of www.TheOptionsInsider, simply LOG IN to your account. Once you are inside the account management panel, just select your preferred alert frequency from the dropdown menu at the bottom of the page. It's just that easy.
Wider Support, Higher Resolution and New Navigation
Many of our users have widescreen monitors and have requested content that fits those displays. As a result, we have increased the resolution and adjusted the layout of The Options Insider. We now run at a native 1024 X 768, which is perfect for a wide variety of monitors and desktop displays. Our new layout is also designed to make better use of the real estate on your monitor.
This new layout also provides us with more room on our top-level navigation bar. This means that regular visitors to The Options Insider can look forward to additional new content sections in the coming months.
New Forum RSS Feed
Building RSS functionality into The Options Insider from the very beginning was one of the best design choices that we made. It has allowed users from all over the world to stay up-to-date with The Options Insider's content. We are proud that The Options Insider's RSS feeds are the first things that many users check when they start their computers in the morning.
After quite a few requests, we have now added the popular Options Insider Discussion Center to our RSS network. Our users can easily SUBSCRIBE TO THIS NEW FEED HERE. This new forum RSS feed provides our users with instant access to all of the latest posts throughout the entire Discussion Center. It's a quick and easy way to stay on top of all of the threads and conversations taking place in our community. From there, simply jump into the threads that interest you and add your $.02 to the conversation. It's quick, easy and fun.
The Road Ahead
These are just a few of the many interesting features that we have in store for our users. Stay tuned for more upgrades in the coming months...
