SuperDerivatives upgrades forex platform

Options pricing systems vendor SuperDerivatives has launched an upgrade of its SD-FX system, according to RiskNews’ sister publication, Dealing With Technology .

The SuperDerivatives subscription-based service provides real-time, online vanilla and exotic currency option market pricing (bid and ask) and analytics. Users are required to have Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, version 5.0, or higher.

Officials at SuperDerivatives say the platform has enhancements targeted to help sales dealers present options strategies to clients, including a strategy builder tool, which enables dealers to add an option to a particular strategy to see how it affects the client’s exposure.

The upgrade also has a higher level of flexibility than the previous version, enabling users to configure the system to their own workflow. This could mean setting it up for frequently used options, or to see a price purely from their own point of view — that of the price maker or the price taker — which aids clarity, says Dani Weigert, head of SuperDerivatives’ help desk in London.

A new facility to automatically upload portfolios to SD-FX from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets will also make it easier for clients to revalue positions with real market prices. "With the growing need for accurate mark-to-market revaluations as a result of accounting standards FAS 133 and IAS 39, this new function is likely to prove indispensable to everyone in the foreign exchange options market," the firm said.

David Gershon, chief executive officer of SuperDerivatives in London, says the firm’s clients had asked it to enhance the tools sales people use in order to stay competitive with their clients. "The number of buy-side users of forex options has grown significantly over the last three years, both in absolute numbers and in level of their sophistication of the option strategies," he says.

SuperDerivatives’ customers include central banks; commercial and investment banks such as Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Société Générale and Commerzbank; as well as corporate treasuries such as IBM, Alcatel, Caterpillar and Ford.