Optiver

The playbook for hedging US stocks is evolving. Recent volatility has been harder to tie to the calendar, and more persistent when it appears. In response, demand for longer-dated S&P 500 protection has increased, with mid-curve and back-end volatility remaining firm even as equities rallied. Read our latest Volatility View here: https://lnkd.in/e4M5S5Pb

Infrastructure-as-Code is straightforward in the cloud. Applying the same principles to racks, cables, and physical servers requires a different approach. In her PyLadies talk, Leanne Fok explains how declarative #IaC principles can be applied to latency-critical bare metal infrastructure. See the talk and our latest blog: https://bit.ly/4bHwZmO

Polar expedition. Chess tournament. Rally Racing. Three very different environments, but shared lessons on resilience, growth and curiosity. Across our offices this International Women’s Day, we welcomed Alison Levine, Judit Polgár and Molly Taylor to share perspectives from their remarkable careers, shaped by performing at the highest levels of their fields. Through their stories, we learnt that growth rarely happens in isolation. When we challenge and support each other, we all improve. Thank you to our speakers and colleagues, who joined the conversation. Swipe to see a few of the lessons shared 👉 #InternationalWomensDay2026 #GivetoGain

Much of our CI platform runs on fixed hardware. That changes how we think about scale, visibility, and capacity. It also means we can’t always rely on auto-scaling to absorb demand spikes. Read the full breakdown in the blog: https://bit.ly/4rQbaIe

Today marks the launch of Optimal Market Technologies, a new U.S. options platform designed to promote transparency, choice and high-quality execution. The U.S. options market has grown rapidly, but execution models haven’t kept pace. As both an investor and a Primary Market Maker (PMM), we’re proud to support a performance-based model where multiple PMMs compete for order flow based on measurable execution quality. “We’re excited to lead the investment round in Optimal and to form a strategic partnership that we believe will bring much-needed competition and innovation to the U.S. retail options market,” said Jake Taylor, head of U.S. single stock options at Optiver. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/e-m_8Dxw

The Trading Academy transformed the classroom into a trading floor as Oxford and Cambridge faced off in the live Varsity Final. Weeks of preparation were put to the test as teams ran and adjusted their strategies in real-time, watching every decision play out on the leaderboard. Students share what it was like to turn theory into working algorithms, and trainers reflect on how the experience mirrors the way our own teams work and learn every day. Congratulations to all the teams who took part. Stay tuned for the next edition!

As data platforms become more interactive, performance problems are rarely local. This blog looks at how small design decisions compound over time, and why speed and scale need to be reasoned about end to end. Read more → https://bit.ly/4rgHdRG #SystemsEngineering #DataPlatforms

Global commodity options volumes are rising. Market participants are increasingly turning to options to manage growing uncertainty and structural shifts in energy and resource markets. Activity has been particularly strong this year in metals such as gold, silver, and copper. The rise reflects demand from the energy transition, a weaker US dollar, trade tensions, and growing geopolitical risk. “Commodities have become central to macro positioning again, driving greater investor engagement and increased price volatility,” said Alex Fisher, Head of Commodities and FX at Optiver. “Options volumes grew by around 25% over the past year as investors increasingly turn to options to hedge these risks.” Read more of our Insights: https://lnkd.in/eJjx_f6H

Operating real-time trading dashboards at petabyte scale requires data engineers to solve for reliability and flexibility without sacrificing performance. This blog breaks down how Optiver replaced fragmented, on-prem systems with a unified Databricks platform using Spark Structured Streaming, smart caching, and Dash apps hosted directly on Databricks to deliver live market insights in seconds. It also reflects why we value our partnership with Databricks as the Spark roadmap continues to make low-latency streaming systems easier to build and operate at scale. Read more: https://bit.ly/4rNdYWv #TechInnovation #DataEngineering #BigDataAnalytics