Two Chicago online trading firms are acquired and announce merger

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Today two of Chicago’s options trading firms announced their plans to merge. The transaction to merge OptionsHouse and tradeMONSTER will close in Q3.

New York-based General Atlantic is buying OptionsHouse from Peak6 Investments and buying a majority stake in tradeMONSTER so that it can then combine the two companies to “create an organization that, as a market leading player, will challenge the status quo in the online brokerage industry,” a statement said.

OptionsHouse is known for being one of the first firms to apply proprietary tools to managing risk in the options market, while tradeMONSTER’s mobile capabilities and desktop-like trading experience further innovate in the financial trading industry. The combined company, which will remain headquartered in Chicago, will be prove to be “a highly scaleable market leader that is well capitalized and committed to innovation and growth,” Andrea Calise, a company spokesperson, said.

Chicago, one of the top cities for financial trading firms, is also home to some of the largest trading platforms such as OptionsCity, Wolverine and Trading Technologies. The merger of OptionsHouse and tradeMONSTER will help to build an even more competitive brokerage for investors and traders coming out of Chicago.

“The online brokerage industry is highly fragmented,” Dirk Mueller-Ingrand, CEO of tradeMONSTER, said in a statement. “This transaction represents a tremendous opportunity to bring together two best-of-breed, online brokerages."

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