Bill Looney of broker XFA was interviewed by JLN at the 2022 Options Conference in San Antonio, Texas about how the firm responded to the pandemic and changes in the markets since March 2020. 

He spoke about how XFA, which caters to the floor markets, had a robust S&P 500 business at the CME that was shut down when the CME closed the trading floor because of the pandemic. However, when the CME reopened the trading floor, they didn’t reopen the S&P 500 trading pit and XFA was not sure how its clients would respond. 

What helped, Looney said, was CME changing its block trading minimum level from 250 contracts to 50. 

JLN asked Looney what the impact of the Fed action has been on Eurodollar options. We also asked him what caused XFA to reopen a 24-hour trading desk and what services it was offering clients.

We also wanted to know what kind of electronic access XFA was offering its clients, considering it is an agency broker known for its floor services.

Compliance is an issue for all firms, so we asked Looney how XFA handles this, especially for its international audience. 

And JLN asked how XFA is dealing with risk management across so many markets and products.