Symbol Master

Symbol Master, Inc. (SMI) has been at the forefront in elevateing global data management standards for over 50 Years. SMI has been a leading provider of precise US Standardized Options Symbology, and has played a pivotal role in defining industry formats and required attributes that help organizations effectively manage their reference and price data for the front, middle and back office. SMI’s content seeds the security master, and core database solutions that drive quantitative and back testing needs with precision.

 

The SMI team is committed to maintaining data integrity and ensuring market consistency. Our service bureau status and industry utility support serve as a bedrock of our organization and have solidified strategic collaborations within the U.S. Options Exchanges and Self-Regulated Organizations (SROs).

 

Our clients represent the most demanding verticals within the options industry. SMI services the most prominent Market Data Vendors & Redistributors, and serves the most sophisticated Sell-Side, Buy-Side, and Quantitative Trading and Investment Management organizations in the business.

 

SMI is considered a critical partner and preferred services provider to the most serious and knowledgeable participants in the financial services industry.

Company Information

Available Data Sets

(1) U.S. Options Reference Data: (Core – Start of Day includes both reference and price)  

Received through direct exchange notification, OPRA, and OCC announcements – Content is processed and validated through Symbol Master’s Technology.

Given SMI’s core focus on US Standardized Options, the SMI primary offering focuses on the Options Strikes and Series that are available, maintained, and expired for all available Underlying Issues and Series in the open market.

Using the SMI offerings and content, users can construct a data model that identifies all tradable Underlying Issues that are included in the US Standardized Options Multi-listed Participant Series Universe. Once all Root Issues and Series are known, SMI can provide Intraday Strike and Series additions and EOD Pricing Details based on the Official Closing Values for both Root and Options Symbol populations.

 

(2) US Options Corporate Actions: 

Received through Direct Exchange Notification and OCC announcements – Symbol Master will process, validate, and incorporate these corporate action changes and their impact directly into the SMI data model.

CorpAct:

The SMI corporate actions (CorpAct) family of files track changes to the underlying, option, and strike level information that impact Position, Risk Management, and Settlement details due to these corporate action events. This includes any adjustments that affect either the option symbol, the strike prices, or deliverable of an option. Symbol Master provides standard and custom-tailored delivery of Corporate Actions content available through industry standard means. We currently support multiple versions of the Corp Act files based on the influence and data models of large data vendors within the Market Data industry.

Corporate Actions (CorpAct) Pending

The CorpAct Pending content tracks all confirmed but not yet effective corporate actions that involve changes to the underlying, option, and strike level details. The pending corporate actions content has been confirmed by either direct exchange notification or OCC memos.

Symbol ChangeOp

The Symbol ChangeOp service logs changes to an option symbol most commonly due to a corporate action.

Symbol ChangeEq

The Symbol ChangeEq service logs changes to an options underlying symbol most commonly due to a corporate action.

(3) Intraday:

The SMI Intraday service enriches the nightly series master information with intraday strike and series additions. The updates are created every half hour from 9am to 4pm Eastern for standardized options. There are multiple versions of the Intraday files, and this is a value-added service to ensure what is being traded in the market is actually reflected in the source security master of its consumers.

 

(4) Flexible Exchange Options (FLEX): (End of Day: EOD)

Created in 1993 by the CBOE originally for OTC Index options. FLEX options are Customized Options Contract Packages primarily used as portfolio hedging tools.

The base service is an end of day offering that shows the package composition of flex symbols available on the previous trading day. As with the Series Master Core data set and Supplemental data set there are multiple files that make up the FLEX offering.

FLEXExt

The FLEX service is an end of day service that identifies what flex symbols are available for the next trading day. There are multiple versions of the FlexExt files with the latest version (FlexExt4) containing listing exchange participant codes that enables users to understand which exchange listed the particular FLEX option.

FLEX Intraday

The FLEX Intraday service enriches the EOD FLEX series content with intraday FLEX strike additions just like the series content. They are created every hour from 9am to 4pm Eastern and include the Participant Exchanges that listed each new FLEX strike and series.

FLEXCorpAct

The FLEXCorpAct enrichment service serves as an alert that a corporate action is affecting the underlying option symbol. Our process utilizes our standard options corporate action content to interpolate potential changes to any related FLEX option.

FLEX Open Interest

The FLEX Open Interest files are created in the evening and show EOD open interest for all FLEX options.

(5) Option Analytics

SMI has created a proprietary Options Analytics pipeline service that calculates and updates daily. This is a uniform End-of-Day (EOD) service that provides both a “Market View” and “Theoretical View” of the assets traded in the respective markets. It includes analytics for both the U.S and 20 additional countries including the G7. It covers all equity, exchanged traded funds (ETFs), and equity indexes that are either listed or traded within the respective markets Segment MIC. The service was designed to serve quantitative analysts, advanced trading desks, and investment managers and is primarily used to run back tests analysis simulations, systematic trading hedging strategies, buffered portfolio overlays, or detailed risk analysis for risk reward and regulatory reporting on portfolio management. Additional applications of this content have been used by equity trading firms to understand sensitivities of underlying equity securities and perform detailed analysis of option portfolio positions. Accounting firms can also use the service to calculate the amount of dividend equivalent payment and delta test for the IRS Section 871(m) requirements. Also available for FLEX Options.

Worldwide Implied Volatility and Greeks

Is a specific type of volatility offering that reflects the markets expectations of future price movements based on current option prices. It is derived from supply and demand for options and indicates the underlyings market’s expected price movement in the future. It is essential for calculating and understanding risk and reward in options contracts.The higher the Implied Volatility the greater expected price movement. Our Worldwide Implied Volatilities and Greeks efficiency is being actively measured and evaluated to produce industry statistics for quality control management daily. Also available for FLEX Options.

Volatility

A current EOD statistical measure that quantifies the degree of variation in the price of the financial instrument. Higher volatility indicates larger price swings and serves as a signal of increased risk.

Volatility (30)

A historical volatility statistical measure that quantifies the degree of variation in the price of the financial instrument over a running 30 Day average and is expressed in percentage terms.
We encourage potential users to review the below sections on our Symbol Master website for further information on our supplemental offering content sets and additional data sets.

(6) Supplemental Content:

(7) Additional Data Sets:

(8) History

10 years of availability for purchase to own usage rights. Details available upon request.