Deutsche adds e-options

Deutsche Bank will go live with foreign exchange options on its autobahnFX trading platform in January, in response to client demand, a bank official told RiskNews ' sister publication FX Week .

The tool would be particularly useful because of Deutsche’s skill and market-share in the field, said Rhomaios Ram, head of foreign exchange structured trading at the German bank in London. "We’re one of the largest options houses in the world, so our prices will be tighter than everyone else’s," he said.

The first phase is in testing and will cover any vanilla strategy - for example strangles, risk reversals, single legs - and offer streaming volatilities across all deltas and maturities in 10 major currency pairs. Clients, which are likely to comprise other banks, corporates and asset managers such as hedge funds and money managers, will also be able to request particular strikes and unusual deltas.

Further phases will add extra features, including a multi-leg structuring tool, more currency pairs, more exotics and live options, said Ram. Deutsche Bank also plans to add options to the white-label version of autobahnFX, which clients may buy and rebrand as their own trading platform for downstream clients.