OneChicago Offers Derivatives To Counter Europe Short-Selling Ban (News Story)

August 18, 2011

A small U.S. derivatives exchange on Thursday rolled out contracts that allow traders to take bearish positions on European stocks affected by new short-selling restrictions, highlighting the tough task regulators can face in trying to limit market activity. OneChicago LLC developed the contracts in the week since the tougher short-selling rules were introduced in an effort to limit market declines, with products linked to exchange-traded funds composed of stocks listed in France, Spain, Italy and Belgium.

"This is another way to get exposure to those markets without touching those foreign exchanges," said David Downey, chief executive of OneChicago. "When we heard about the short-selling bans in those countries I instructed our staff to go through and find any ETFs based on those countries' markets that we did not currently list for trading."