Egar Technology launches web tool for equity options trading

Egar Technology, a New York-based supplier of trading and risk management systems, has released Egar Dispersion ASP, a web-based version of Egar Dispersion, an analytical tool for equity cash and options traders.

The tool aids volatility dispersion trading, a hedged strategy designed to take advantage of relative value differences in implied volatilities between an index and a basket of component stocks.

It provides several statistical measures of the stock components of an index, such as equivalent index volatility and contribution to index volatility, along with measures on the index itself. This helps dispersion traders pick the components of their portfolio as well as time trades better.

“The new tool has the same applications as Egar Dispersion, but the web technology eliminates the technical issues associated with stand-alone systems, such as installation, data feeds and firewalls,” Michael Aiken, senior vice-president at Egar, told RiskNews.

Six new clients - Nomura International, Commerzbank, Equitec Proprietary Markets, Bear Wagner Specialists, Tanstaafl and Parallax - have signed up for the tool.