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The 2016 Trading Technology 40: Gerald O’Connell

No. 12 Gerald O’Connell, CBOE Holdings

March 07, 2016

< The 2016 Trading Technology 40

Gerald O’Connell

Chief Information Officer

CBOE Holdings

Last year: 12

After more than 30 years in technology positions at CBOE Holdings, 23 of them as chief information officer, Gerald O’Connell asserts that the multiexchange operator is more competitive than ever. And the 64-year-old isn’t done innovating. Following its 2014 success in expanding trading hours on its popular Volatility Index to nearly 24 hours a day, five days a week, the Chicago-based company extended hours for more options products in 2015. Additional trading capability and lower latency are on the agenda for 2016, but even more significant, O’Connell says, is a new matching engine. Known as Vector, the system is being developed from scratch and will be launched on the CBOE Futures Exchange in the second half of the year. “CBOE’s Vector is being designed for maximum flexibility and scalability, and, we believe, will be an industry leader in terms of latency,” boasts O’Connell. “We think we’ll be leapfrogging most of the industry with this new technology.” He estimates latency will improve by a factor of five to ten over the current system, Command. In addition to speeding up order tracking and trades, Vector is expected to introduce new risk controls, some at the request of customers and some mandated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to O’Connell. In September, CBOE teamed up with Environmental Financial Products, the market development firm led by futures pioneer Richard Sandor, to launch the American Financial Exchange, designed to bring standardization and transparency to short-term lending among small and midsize banks. AFX will use the new Vector technology.

2016 Trading Technology 40