Futures Now Trading on the SPIKES Volatility Index

PRINCETON, N.J. and MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Miami International Securities Exchange, LLC (MIAX®) and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) today announce that a successful first day of futures trading on the SPIKES® Volatility Index (SPIKES) took place yesterday on December 14.

"SPIKES Futures are a significant step forward for the volatility marketplace, adding necessary competition, choice and innovation," said Thomas P. Gallagher, Chairman and CEO of MIAX. "With SPIKES Futures, investors have access to an advanced, competitively priced volatility trading product that further rounds out the SPIKES Volatility Products portfolio. We are excited that SPIKES Futures liquidity providers successfully began actively quoting yesterday, providing a tight market for SPIKES Futures right out of the gate."

Available on MGEX via the CME Globex® platform, SPIKES Futures (Ticker: SPK) offers a trading experience consistent with industry best practice tick size, notional value and contract specifications. SPIKES Futures introduces a more innovative, efficient, accurate and cost-effective choice to the current volatility trading market.

"SPIKES Futures is a step toward our goal of growing and diversifying our exchange and bringing much-needed transparency and competition to the volatility sector," said Mark G. Bagan, President and CEO of MGEX. "This is an exciting moment for MGEX and uniquely positions us to offer many new proprietary products to the derivatives trading community."

Designed by financial indexing firm T3 Index, SPIKES is a measure of the expected 30-day volatility in the SPDR® S&P 500® ETF (SPY), the most actively traded ETF in the world. Calculated and disseminated every 100 milliseconds, SPIKES offers index stability and accuracy as a result of its proprietary price dragging technology and other features that reduce erratic index values.

"In an increasingly volatile and complex market, SPIKES Futures addresses vital trading needs, including a hedging component, specialized opportunities, reliability and speed. Quite simply, everything that volatility trading firms have long sought," said Simon Ho, CEO of T3 Index. "SPIKES Futures delivers all of this with ultra-low fees."

SPIKES Futures contract specifications, trading rules, pricing and interface specifications are available on the MGEX website at www.mgex.com. Additional information regarding SPIKES Futures can be found at MIAXoptions.com/spikes/futures.

Since December 4, 2020, MGEX is a wholly owned subsidiary of MIAX's parent holding company, Miami International Holdings.

For further information regarding MIAX and SPIKES, please visit https://www.miaxoptions.com/spikes/futures or contact MIAX Trading Operations at [email protected].

Corporate Communications Contacts:

MIAX
Natalie Kay
(215) 790-7806
[email protected]

MGEX
Jesse Marie Green
612-321-7122
[email protected]  

T3 Index
Simon Ho
+61 (0) 410 330 565
[email protected] 

About MIAX
MIAX's parent holding company, Miami International Holdings (MIH), operates and manages Miami International Securities Exchange, LLC (MIAX®), MIAX Pearl, LLC (MIAX Pearl®) and MIAX Emerald, LLC (MIAX Emerald® and together with MIAX and MIAX Pearl, the MIAX Exchange Group™), three national securities exchanges, and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, LLC (MGEX), a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO). MIH also owns a controlling interest in the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

MIAX, MIAX Pearl and MIAX Emerald options exchanges leverage MIAX's industry-leading technology and infrastructure to provide their member firms with traditional pricing and pro rata allocation (MIAX), maker-taker pricing and price-time allocation (MIAX Pearl) market structures, and a hybrid market structure with maker-taker pricing and pro rata allocation (MIAX Emerald).

MIAX® serves as the exclusive exchange venue for cash-settled options on the SPIKES® Volatility Index (Ticker: SPIKE), a measure of the expected 30-day volatility in the SPDR® S&P 500® ETF (SPY).

Under MIAX Pearl's exchange license, MIAX Pearl Equities™ provides its members with best-in-class performance through a combination of high determinism, low latency and high throughput. MIAX Pearl Equities has maker-taker pricing and a price-time allocation model.

MGEX was established in 1881 and is the only market for Hard Red Spring Wheat (HRSW), National Corn Index (NCI), National Soybean Index (NSI), Hard Red Winter Wheat Index (HRWI), Hard Red Spring Wheat Index (HRSI), and Soft Red Winter Wheat Index (SRWI) futures and options, as well as for HRSW calendar spread options (CSOs). In addition, MGEX provides DCM, DCO and cash market services to business partners in an array of asset classes. On December 4, 2020, MGEX became a wholly owned subsidiary of MIH.

MIAX's executive offices and National Operations Center are located in Princeton, NJ, with additional offices located in Miami, FL.

To learn more visit www.MIAXOptions.com

About T3 Index
SPIKES has been developed by T3 Index, a research-driven financial indexing firm, specializing in volatility and option benchmarking. T3 Index is dedicated to developing investible, proprietary indices that track related strategies across a range of asset classes to transform the way people invest and manage risk. For more information on T3 Index and their range of indices, visit www.t3index.com.

Disclaimer and Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase any securities of Miami International Holdings, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, the Company) or T3 Index, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer; solicitation or sale would be unlawful. This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. 

All third-party trademarks (including logos and icons) referenced by the Company or T3 Index remain the property of their respective owners. Unless specifically identified as such, the Company's or T3 Index's use of third-party trademarks does not indicate any relationship, sponsorship, or endorsement between the owners of these trademarks and the Company or T3 Index. Any references by the Company or T3 Index to third-party trademarks is to identify the corresponding third-party goods and/or services and shall be considered nominative fair use under the trademark law.

SOURCE Miami International Securities Exchange, LLC