Exegy and BMLL Technologies have expanded their partnership to deliver a unified OPRA options data solution, integrating real-time and historical datasets to support front-office trading and research functions. The collaboration builds on an agreement established in Q3 2023 and is aimed at addressing the data engineering challenges posed by the scale and complexity of OPRA market data.
“We’re seeing a big uptick in US equity options activity, driven largely by increased retail participation and brokers making it easier for people to trade options online. That’s creating real opportunities for electronic market makers and brokers looking to capture more volume,” says David Taylor, CEO of Exegy, in conversation with TradingTech Insight. “On the institutional side, we’ve seen banks and brokerages ramp up their investment in options over the past five years. At the same time, there’s a broader shift toward more quantitative, multi-asset strategies as firms look for new sources of alpha beyond the crowded single-asset trades. All of that is driving increased demand for both real-time and historical options market data.”
BMLL, a provider of harmonised historical Level 1, 2 and 3 data and analytics, recently added US equity options to its dataset, sourcing real-time OPRA data from Exegy’s Axiom platform. Exegy supplies market data and trading solutions across the latency spectrum, and its conflation algorithm is now being used to align data across both firms’ platforms. Together, the two companies promise a consistent, high-quality feed that simplifies the transition from research to production environments for quantitative trading firms.
“US options data is massive and complex,” notes Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL. “Exegy has a first-class real-time product, and we’ve built a historical product that matches their format to support research and back-testing, all in one place. It’s a strong proposition.”
“If you’re a trading firm – whether you’re on the buy side or sell side – once you decide to invest in a new strategy, the first step is digging into the data,” says Taylor. “You want to analyse the market, test your strategy, and that process often starts on the BMLL platform, which gives you access to historical data, the ability to run analytics at scale in the cloud, and then dial it down when you’re done. But the big challenge comes when it’s time to move from research into production. Any mismatch between your simulation and real-time performance introduces risk; technical risk, data alignment issues, behavioural differences in how your strategy responds. What you really want is a smooth, low-risk transition from analysis to live trading, with as few variables as possible.”
“Customers can hit the ground running with access to both offerings,” adds Humphrey. “For research and back-testing, they get high-quality, fit-for-purpose data – with no missing fields – so they can design strategies, extract alpha, and then move seamlessly into live trading. Increasingly, clients are moving away from generic, one-size-fits-all solutions. Today, best-in-class is what they’re after. That’s why it’s on us, as specialised providers, to partner up and deliver integrated, high-quality solutions that are easy to access and use.”
The enhanced partnership enables mutual clients to conduct back-testing and simulation using BMLL’s granular historical options data, while maintaining data consistency with Exegy’s real-time feeds. This alignment is expected to reduce time-to-market for new strategies and improve operational efficiency by minimising data reconciliation tasks.
“Firms want to use the same interface – the same API – for both historical analysis and live trading,” states Taylor. “That’s really at the heart of this announcement. First, it’s about delivering the US options consolidated tape, which is the dataset everyone’s focused on. And second, it’s about making that data available through a common interface, so firms can move from research to production with minimal risk.”
Looking ahead to 2025, the two partners plan to integrate the BMLL Data Feed into Exegy’s XCAPI interface, enabling seamless navigation between historical and real-time data streams. The integration is designed to eliminate complex mapping and translation processes, supporting faster and more scalable strategy deployment.
OPRA (Options Price Reporting Authority) consolidates and distributes options trading data from all US options exchanges, covering quotes, trade data, and volume across venues including Cboe, Nasdaq, NYSE and MIAX.
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