Options Price Reporting Authority

The Options Price Reporting Authority, commonly known as OPRA, is the U.S. national market system plan governing the collection, consolidation, and distribution of market data from participating options exchanges. It oversees a Securities Information Processor, or SIP, that receives trade and quotation messages from the participating exchanges and makes consolidated information available to approved market-data vendors. OPRA is not a conventional exchange, brokerage, investment manager, or publicly listed operating company. Its role is coordination and market infrastructure. The participating exchanges remain responsible for operating their own trading venues, while OPRA provides the framework through which their publicly reportable options-market information is combined into a consolidated feed. This function supports the national market system by allowing market participants and information vendors to access a broad view of activity across multiple U.S. options venues rather than relying solely on an individual exchange's data. The OPRA feed includes last-sale reports for completed options transactions, current bids and offers, open-interest information, index values, and end-of-day summaries. The Securities Industry Automation Corporation, generally known as SIAC, administers the SIP's systems and networks. Cboe serves as OPRA's administrator, while the participant exchanges collectively form the committee associated with the plan. OPRA's participating venues include exchanges operated by Cboe, Nasdaq, NYSE, Miami International Holdings, BOX, and Members Exchange. The participant group has included Cboe Options Exchange, Cboe EDGX Options Exchange, Cboe BZX Options Exchange, Cboe C2 Options Exchange, Nasdaq PHLX, Nasdaq ISE, Nasdaq Options Market, Nasdaq GEMX, Nasdaq BX Options, Nasdaq MRX, NYSE Arca Options, NYSE American Options, BOX Options, Miami International Holdings, and Members Exchange. The scale of OPRA's technology challenge has expanded substantially as the U.S. options market has grown. Message traffic is driven by trade reports and quote updates transmitted by the participant exchanges. The transition toward penny pricing in 2007 increased the number of possible price updates, while expanded strike-price programs increased the number of available option contracts. Together with broader market activity and electronic trading, these changes caused options-data message rates to become far higher than comparable equity-market data rates. The OPRA feed consequently represents a major component of U.S. financial-market data traffic. OPRA's value proposition is neutrality, consolidation, coverage, and standardized access to listed-options information. Its users are primarily exchanges, broker-dealers, market-data vendors, professional trading firms, financial institutions, and other approved recipients rather than retail consumers purchasing a branded product directly. OPRA's continuing importance depends on reliable infrastructure, accurate reporting, high-capacity networks, and rules that coordinate the data obligations of the participating markets.

OPRA was established as part of the U.S. national market system framework for listed options. Its purpose is to coordinate the market-data reporting obligations of participating options exchanges and to make consolidated information available to the market through a Securities Information Processor. Rather than operating a trading venue, OPRA links the reporting systems of multiple exchanges and provides a common distribution mechanism for their trade and quotation information. The model reflects the fragmented structure of U.S. securities markets. Options can be traded on multiple registered exchanges, each generating its own stream of transactions, bids, offers, and related information. Without a consolidated reporting process, users would need to obtain separate feeds from each venue to understand the broader market. OPRA addresses this problem by collecting the relevant information, consolidating it, and distributing it to approved market-data vendors. The Securities Industry Automation Corporation administers the SIP's systems and networks. Cboe acts as OPRA administrator, and the participating exchanges are represented through the committee associated with the plan. The participant set has included exchanges affiliated with Cboe, Nasdaq, NYSE, Miami International Holdings, BOX, and Members Exchange. OPRA's data scope covers last-sale reports, options quotations, open interest, index values, and end-of-day summaries. These data categories support price discovery, execution analysis, risk management, valuation, regulatory monitoring, and market-data products used by professional and institutional participants. The operational demands placed on OPRA increased as options trading became more electronic and more granular. In the early 1990s, options-data message rates were much lower than later levels. The adoption of penny pricing beginning in February 2007 increased the number of possible price points at which options quotes could change. Programs involving dollar-denominated strike-price intervals also expanded the number of contracts and prices that could generate messages. Continued growth in listed-options trading further increased traffic. OPRA's message-per-second rate became a key indicator of options-market activity and infrastructure requirements. The options feed has been described as generating substantially more messages than the equity market, with options data accounting for a very large share of overall market-data traffic. This growth made network capacity, systems reliability, processing speed, and vendor distribution central to OPRA's continuing role. Today, OPRA remains a core U.S. financial-market infrastructure arrangement. Its function is principally institutional and operational: it helps make the national options market visible through a consolidated data stream while leaving trading, order matching, and exchange-level market operations to the individual participant venues.

• 2007

  Penny pricing expands potential quote traffic

  [1]Options Price Reporting Authorityen.wikipedia.org

  The options industry began shifting from five-cent minimum price increments to one-cent increments. Because quote prices could be updated at more granular levels, the change contributed to growth in OPRA message volumes.

A neutral market-data coordination and distribution infrastructure for the U.S. listed-options market.

• Market data infrastructure

  OPRA Securities Information Processor feed

  The central consolidated data service associated with OPRA. It receives eligible last-sale and quotation messages from participating U.S. options exchanges, combines them into a market-wide stream, and disseminates the information to approved vendors. The feed also includes open interest, index values, and end-of-day summaries. It is used as an underlying source for professional trading, brokerage, analytics, valuation, and financial-information services.

• 2007

  Support for the options industry's transition to penny pricingOther

  Background

  The options market began replacing five-cent minimum price increments with one-cent increments. More granular pricing increased the number of possible quote changes that could be reported through OPRA.

  Action taken

  OPRA continued to receive and distribute the expanded flow of quote and trade messages generated by the pricing transition.

  Aftermath

  The change was identified as one contributor to the long-term increase in OPRA message-per-second rates and the capacity requirements of the options market-data infrastructure.

  Source

1. 1Options Price Reporting Authorityen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Options Price Reporting Authority official websiteopradata.com